§ Mr. E. WILLIAMSasked the Home Secretary whether he is aware of the increase in the number of the duties carried out by the Metropolitan Police (such as traffic control, census work, and inspection under the Food and Drugs Acts) which impair the efficiency of the service in its primary duty, which is the prevention and detection of crime; and what steps he proposes to take to rectify this?
§ Sir J. GILMOURI am well aware that the police are called upon to perform many duties of public value in addition to their primary duty of maintaining order and preventing and detecting crime. The Commissioner of Police542W is fully alive to the necessity of reducing the time such duties occupy to a minimum and every effort is made to that end. In the case of traffic control, I am looking to automatic traffic light signals to effect a substantial reduction in the number of men employed. The Metropolitan Police have no duties under the Food and Drugs Acts, and the work they do on the national census is negligible.