§ Mr. WyattTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what contribution his Department will make towards the extra staff required by Kent County Constabulary to enforce the provisions of the Kent County Council Bill and the Medway Council Bill; [130934]
(2) how many extra police he estimates will be needed by Kent County Constabulary to enable effective enforcement of the provisions of the Kent County Council Bill and Medway Council Bill; [130933]
(3) how many (a) meetings, (b) e-mails and (c) telephone calls there have been between his Department and Kent County Constabulary to discuss the Kent County Council Bill and Medway Council Bill. [1309320]
§ Mr. Charles Clarke[holding answer 17 July 2000]: Meetings were held between the Home Office, Kent County Constabulary and the Trading Standards Authority to investigate the principle of the Kent County Council Bill and the Medway Council Bill before they were deposited. Additional meetings and telephone calls have been held between the Home Office and the solicitors representing the Kent County Constabulary. The Home Office submitted a report on the Bills and Kent Country Constabulary met any concerns.
Records are not kept centrally of the number of meetings held, e-mails exchanged, or telephone calls received or made by the Department on any specific subject.
The Chief Constable has advised me that he does not anticipate that enforcing the provisions of the Bills will impose any significant increased demand on police resources. He is confident that the Bills will enhance Kent's existing intelligence led policing and lead to increased efficiency for individual officers investigating individual crimes.