HC Deb 12 January 1987 vol 108 cc73-4W
Mr. Dobson

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many crimes in total, and how many crimes of violence, were committed in each district of the Metropolitan police in 1978 and in each year since;

Mr. Douglas Hogg

With regret, my right hon. Friend felt unable to implement the agreement reached by the Police Negotiating Board to increase the flat-rate pensions payable to police widows whose husbands retired before 1 April 1956. To do so would have been to breach the longstanding principle that pension entitlement under public service schemes should not be improved retrospectively. Such a breach could not be justified for this group of police widows in isolation from claims on behalf of other groups of public service widows.

The initial cost of awarding the increase recommended by the Police Negotiating Board is estimated at £455,000 per annum, but the cost of meeting the expected claims on other public service schemes would in total be unacceptably high.