HL Deb 31 March 1993 vol 544 cc48-9WA
Lord Harris of Greenwich

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What will be the boundaries of the new regional crime squads.

Earl Ferrers

A new South-East regional crime squad, formed by the amalgamation of the existing Nos. 5, 6 and 9 squads, will come into operation on 1st April 1993. It will cover the Metropolitan Police area, the City of London and the counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex and Thames Valley.

There are no plans to change the boundaries of the existing North-West (No. 1) and Midlands (No. 4) regional crime squads. Proposals for amalgamating the Nos. 7 and 8 squads, which cover Avon and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Dyfed-Powys, Gwent and South Wales, and the Nos. 2 and 3 squads, which cover Cleveland, Durham, Northumbria, North Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Humberside, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, are still under discussion.