§ Mr. LintonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action the Government have taken to bring the number of police officers in Wandsworth up to its establishment, with special reference to Battersea. [151151]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeThe Government want to see police numbers rising. Our spending plans therefore make generous provision, intended to meet major pay, pensions and other pressures on forces as well as providing ring-fenced funding to increase recruitment through the Crime Fighting Fund (CFF).
As part of the police grant settlement for 2001–02, the Metropolitan police authority will receive £1.822.8 million in Government supported funding. This is an increase of 5.3 per cent. over the provision for 2000–01. In addition, funding is available from the CFF to enable the Metropolitan police service to recruit an additional 2,044 officers over and above the number that the force would otherwise have recruited in the three years from April 2000.
Other measures which should boost recruitment in the Met include the £3,327 per annum increase in London Allowance paid to officers in the Met (and City), who were recruited on or after 1 September 1994; the provision of free rail travel within a 70–mile radius of London for the Met's officers; and the National Recruitment Campaign. By 25 February the campaign had resulted in 2,304 Expressions of Interest being passed to the Met, and a further 1,160 calls transferred to the Met's own call centre.
Several outline bids covering the Met police area are also being assessed under the first round of the Government's Starter Homes Initiative which will enable key workers, including police officers, to purchase homes in areas of high-cost housing.
The allocation of resources and the deployment of officers within the Metropolitan police is an operational decision for the Commissioner.