HC Deb 12 March 1981 vol 1000 cc381-2W
Mr. Les Huckfield

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) whether he will list the police authorities in the United Kingdom which currently operate cars not manufactured or assembled in the United Kingdom;

(2) what advice his Department has given to police authorities on their vehicle purchasing policy, especially in view of discounting and other fleet incentive offers from foreign manufacturers.

Mr. Mayhew

Home Office circular No. 107/1975 issued on 25 June 1975 suggested to chief officers of police and to police authorities that before buying a foreign car they would wish to survey the market carefully and satisfy themselves that no suitable British-made car of comparable specification and price was available. Home Office circular No. 9/1981 drew attention again to that advice. Copies of the circulars are in the Library of the House.

According to notifications reaching the Home Office by 10 March 1981 under the terms of the circulars, police forces in England and Wales had the following holdings of cars assembled abroad:

Force Numbers of Cars Assembled Abroad
Avon and Somerset 10
Bedfordshire 11
Cambridgeshire 0
Cheshire 0
City of London 5
Cleveland 18
Cumbria 7
Derbyshire 13

Force Numbers of Cars Assembled Abroad
Devon and Cornwall 74
Dorset 26
Durham 31
Dyfed-Powys 2
Essex 51
Gloucestershire 74
Greater Manchester 129
Gwent 8
Hampshire 63
Hertfordshire 22
Humberside 44
Kent 2
Lancashire 1
Leicestershire 57
Lincolnshire 47
Merseyside 69
Norfolk 35
Northampton 8
Northumbria 78
North Wales 2
North Yorkshire 33
Nottinghamshire 33
South Wales 4
South Yorkshire 0
Staffordshire 37
Suffolk 20
Surrey 41
Sussex 1
Thames Valley 74
Warwickshire 19
West Mercia 42
West Midlands 11
West Yorkshire 67
Wiltshire 28
Metropolitan Police 30

Excluding motor cycles, this total of 1,327 is estimated to represent about 6 per cent. of the total vehicle fleet of police forces in England and

Mr. Les Huckfield

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will publish details of the cars operated by police authorities in the United Kingdom, listing them by manufacturer or assembler.

Mr. Mayhew

Such derails are not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.