§ Mr. FraserTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the current cost of the Metropolitan, West Midlands and Merseyside police forces expressed in terms of cost per crime cleared up.
§ Mr. Peter LloydThe available information on the amount of police time spent on different types of activity, including clearing up crime, does not yet make it possible to produce an accurate and consistent unit cost of crime cleared up for each force. A programme of work, following a joint Home Office/Treasury study of police manpower, is under way to develop standard methods of activity analysis in forces. This should in due course make it possible to attribute time and cost to different activities, including those relating to crime.