§ Mr. Cohenasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer in the Official Report, 18 November, column 90, how many police national computer inquiries were made by the Metropolitan police over the last two months; and how many were made in each of the nine categories mentioned in his previous answer.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggI am informed by the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis that the latest
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Uniformed officers (sergeants and above) and all CID officers Uniformed police constables only1 Division Total establishment Actual strength Target strength Actual strength Tooting 71 65 197 191 Battersea 54 70 188 198 Wandsworth 44 55 173 184 Total 169 190 558 573 1The system of fixing establishments for uniformed constables on divisions is no longer used. Instead, the Metropolitan police have developed a manpower allocation formula which ensures that each area gets an equitable share of the total uniformed constable manpower available. Responsibility for allocating area manpower between divisions rests with each area deputy assistant commissioner, who determines a "target strength" for each division. figures available are for August 1986, when the total number of accesses (inquiries plus update transactions) to the police national computer by his force was 3,980 More recent information is not readily available because a sample is taken periodically.
All the inquiries fall into the nine categories listed in my reply to the hon. Member of 18 November and individual accesses can be traced in the event of a subsequent query. No statistics are kept of the number of accesses in particular categories.