§ Mr. Iain Millsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he has as to the annual cost of equipping police motorway patrol cars.
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§ Mr. Giles ShawA total annual figure is not held centrally. The annual cost of equipping a single police motorway patrol vehicle is estimated to be between £850 and £2,200, including modification, installation and maintenance costs, depending on the type of vehicle and its intended use.
§ Mr. Iain Millsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will now make a statement on the progress of work by his Department on the design of a new car pod system of equipping police cars;
(2) what estimate he has made of the likely savings from equipping police cars with the car pod system.
§ Mr. Giles ShawWork on the development of a "carpod" or container which could be mounted on the roof of a vehicle and hold all its communications and electrical equipment has been under way for several years, but a prototype which meets the operational requirements cost-effectively has yet to be produced. Further work will be undertaken as resources permit. The use of a carpod should reduce the cost of equipping a police vehicle, but any such saving would be at least partially offset by the cost of the carpod itself as well as any consequent reduction in the petrol and speed efficiency of the vehicle.