§ Shona McIsaacTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on Humberside police's bid for funding for extra officers from the Crime Fighting Fund. [121936]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeI refer the hon. Member to the announcement I made on 17 May 2000,Official Report, columns 169–70W, which sets out details of the revised distribution of the 5,000 recruits under the Crime Fighting Fund for all forces in England and Wales.
Humberside police bid for 251 officers and were allocated a total of 74 officers. Although the total number of officers has not changed, the accelerated scheme will enable Humberside to recruit 47 extra officers under the scheme this year and 27 next year.
The Humberside police bid was considered most carefully, as were all the bids. 4,000 of the 5,000 officers were allocated between forces using the Police Grant and Standard Spending Assessment formula, which included an additional 2 per cent. sparsity factor to benefit forces such as Humberside that cover rural as well as urban areas. The remaining 1,000 officers were divided between the 34 forces putting in the best bids.