§ Mr. TyrieTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Prime Minister's oral answer of 28 January 1998,Official Report, column 347, by how much he has increased the amount planned for expenditure on the police for 1997–98. [26850]
§ Mr. MichaelThe spending power of police authorities in England and Wales increased by £247 million, or 3.7 per cent. in 1997–98 under the spending plans of the previous Government.
Our proposals for 1998–99 will allow the overall spending of police authorities in England and Wales to increase by £258 million, or 3.7 per cent. over 1997–98 to around £7.15 billion. This is a healthy increase for the police at a time of restraint on public expenditure.
§ Mr. YeoTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list for each police authority in England the cost of the extra employers' pension contributions those authorities will have to make as a result of the abolition of the tax credits to pension funds. [26834]
§ Mr. MichaelThere will be no such costs in relation to the employment of police officers. The police pension scheme is not based on a pension fund, but is financed on a pay-as-you-go basis. Only civilian staff employed by police authorities in England are members of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). It will not be possible to indicate future employer pension costs arising from the abolition of tax credits to local authority pension funds until the completion of the 1998 LGPS valuation exercise.