HC Deb 11 April 2002 vol 383 cc498-502W
Mr. McNamara

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to his answer of 9 November 2001,Official Report, column 485W, in what manner the PSNI activity data collection will break down activities of the police; what the objectives and terms of reference for this exercise are; and in what way the results of such analysis will be made public. [29809]

Jane Kennedy

The PSNI activity analysis collection will break down activities in accordance with the ACPO National Police Activity Based Costing Model. This model is focused on the District/Basic Command Unit and encompasses the total cost of policing a given geographical area. It includes all of those policing services which are delivered by DCU staff, and includes contributions from Headquarters operational or organisational support units. The six core areas of policing activity to be analysed are crime, road traffic, public order, public reassurance, call management and prisoner handling. Each of these core areas are broken down into Incidents (and by association incident related activities) and Non-incident Related Activities. For example, Crime is broken down into Violence (sexual offences, robbery, violence against the person), Burglary (dwelling, other), Theft of or from a Motor Vehicle, Theft other (shoplifting), Criminal Damage, Drugs (Class A), Other Crime and Crime Desk/Telephone Investigation Bureau.

The objectives of the Activity Analysis/Activity Based Costing Project are as follows: To provide complete, accurate and timely activity information through user friendly, on-line access to relevant systems; To make transparent the full cost of providing policing services, including by way of activity based costing; To assist in the delegation of operational and financial decision-making to the lowest level consistent with strategic direction and control; To link Activity management with Corporate Planning, Performance, Best Value and Inspection and Review.

The main outputs from the Project will be as follows: Standard classification of policing activities linked to organisational objectives; Develop and conduct activity analysis programmes; Carry out research into other GB Forces' activity based costing and activity sampling systems and make appropriate recommendations; Identification of overheads; Development of overhead apportionment rules; Develop interfaces with other PSNI systems as required; Activity based costing extracted from existing computer systems; Activity sampling; Internal and external benchmarking; Trading accounts for Administration Departments; Costed Service Level agreements for Administration Departments.

The analysis will be made public to enable informed decisions to be made about the allocation of scarce resources. Activity analysis will also help inform future funding debates and make explicit how resources are allocated across core police functions.

Mr. McNamara

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will break down the number of complaints received by the Police Ombudsman by(a) perceived community origin, (b) gender and (c) other recorded categories of complainant. [43890]

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
Reg Ftr Reg Ftr Reg Ftr Reg Ftr Reg Ftr Reg Ftr
A 557 256 536 237 536 227 522 235 514 219 480 198
B 447 374 455 344 445 378 427 350 413 342 412 327
D 721 356 713 327 727 326 720 317 712 306 721 286
E 404 374 401 364 414 372 412 355 406 335 377 310
G 290 165 295 156 300 154 307 153 313 149 296 139
H 368 230 373 203 352 210 343 205 324 188 322 172
J 266 146 267 131 277 133 284 129 299 135 285 123
K 241 141 263 139 239 140 227 140 228 125 231 114
L 434 238 428 211 413 217 406 204 412 192 396 174
N 369 215 387 197 380 203 358 192 351 176 352 169
O 295 167 307 158 292 163 301 163 291 155 287 137
P 266 109 270 106 278 109 291 101 290 96 275 85
Total 465 277 469 257 465 263 459 254 455 241 443 223
8 1 5 3 3 2 8 4 3 8 4 4

Jane Kennedy

The numbers of regular and full-time reserve members of the Police Service in Northern Ireland in 2002, following the replacement of Divisions with District Commond Units (DCUs), are as follows:

2002 (as at 15 March 2002)
Ftr Reg
N BMEN DCU 108 23
N BMON DCU 60 14
N COLE DCU 109 43
N FERM DCU 188 82
N FOYL DCU 223 83
N LARN DCU 68 22
N LIMA DCU 63 28
N MFEL DCU 88 54

Mr. Mackinlay

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many recipients there are of pensions paid(a) for their service and (b) by virtue of their husband's service in the Royal Irish constabulary including Auxiliaries. [44658]

Jane Kennedy

There are(a) no recipients of pensions paid to former officers of the Royal Irish Constabulary including Auxiliaries and (b) four recipients of pensions paid to widows by virtue of their husband's service.

Mr. Dodds

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many prosecutions are under way against members of the Police Service in respect of activity carried out by them in the course of their duties in the period up to May 1998. [43434]

Jane Kennedy

The Chief Constable has advised that there is no record of any prosecutions underway against members of the Police Service in respect of activity carried out by them in the course of their duties from 1996 to May 1998. Records prior to 1996 are held in a form which is not readily retrieved.

Mr. Dodds

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many(a) full-time and (b) reserve members of the Police Service there were in each police division in Northern Ireland in each year since 1996. [43433]

Jane Kennedy

The numbers of regular and full-time reserve members of the Police Service in each police division in Northern Ireland in each year from 1996 to 2001, are as follows:

2002 (as at 15 March 2002)
Ftr Reg
N MOYL DCU 24 11
N OMAG DCU 118 41
N STRB DCU 100 56
S ARDS DCU 121 51
S ARMA DCU 124 62
S BANB DCU 80 29
S COOK DCU 84 37
S CRAI DCU 165 71
S DAST DCU 166 72
S DOWN DCU 153 85
S NEWM DCU 174 87
U ANTR DCU 99 54
U BELE DCU 196 126
2002 (as at 15 March 2002)
Ftr Reg
U BELN DCU 334 109
U BELS DCU 276 142
U BELW DCU 254 205
U CFER DCU 70 52
U CREA DCU 104 72
U LISB DCU 197 112
U NABB DCU 129 26
U NDOW DCU 139 88
Total 4,014 1,925

Mr. Gregory Campbell

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people identified as(a) Protestant and (b) Rzoman Catholic who have applied to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (i) were found to be suitably qualified and (ii) were not offered a position within the Police Service. [45756]

Jane Kennedy

In the first Police Service of Northern Ireland recruitment competition, 419 candidates identified as non-Catholic and 173 candidates identified as Catholic were found to he suitably qualified.

To date 245 candidates from the non-Catholic group have been informed that the Chief Constable cannot offer them an appointment, in accordance with Section 46 of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000. No candidate in the Catholic group has to date been refused an appointment.

Mr. Donaldson

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what expenditure has been made on the refurbishment of the police Land Rover fleet in Northern Ireland in each year since 1995; what tendering processes were held for the award of the contracts; and what the benefit to the public purse will be of using low cost substitute Land Rover components in the refurbishment work. [46032]

Jane Kennedy

The Chief Constable has advised me that expenditure made on the refurbishment of the Police Landrover fleet since 1995 is as follows:

Business Year Expenditure & Number Cost (New) Saving
1995–96–97–98 0 0 0
1998–99 £1250k (50 x vehicles) £2,250k £1,000k
1,999–00 £1,300k (50 x vehicles) £2,350k £1,050k
2,000–01 £980k (35 x vehicles) £1,645k £665k
Business Year Expenditure & Number Cost (New) Saving
2001–021 £510k (15 x vehicles) £900k £390k
Totals £4,040k (150 x vehicles) £7145k £3105k
1 Phase 3 TD5 Land Rover approved power-train conversion.

The refurbishment engineering programme was originally tendered through the Government Puchasing Agency and ratified via the Support Services Committee of the Police Authority.

Later programmes have been tendered through the Government Purchasing Unit and ratified via Police Transport Policy Committee.

The refurbishment programme includes the utilisation of discounted and approved Land Rover parts, which include a warranty period of 12 months. It is not possible to quantify separately the savings arising from the use of these component parts.