§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in view of the latest police reports of the substantial growth in crime, the difficulties of the police in dealing with this and the shortage of police to fill their limited establishment he will now consider establishing a separate Metropolitan Police force to deal with road transport matters, consisting of pensioned policemen, police officers who are disabled or otherwise unfit for normal police duties and concentrating the Metropolitan Police crime preventive section on matters connected with matters other than road traffic items.
§ Mr. MayhewNo.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will make a statement on the Metropolitan Police's current recruitment drive "All London Coppers are Members of a Minority"; how much has been budgeted for this campaign; and what action will be taken to ensure that recruits from the extreme political non-democratic parties are not enrolled.
§ Mr. WhitelawI understand that the purpose of this advertisement, which is one of a series designed to attract recruits of the right quality, was to make it clear that the Metropolitan Police want recruits from all sections of our multi-racial society. The estimated cost of Metropolitan Police recruitment advertising in 1981–82 is £430,000. The initial selection procedures and a continuous process of assessment during initial training are used to identify and eliminate those who, because of their extreme political beliefs or other reasons, could not be relied upon to maintain the standards of impartiality expected of the police service.