§ Mr. RosindellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many(a) sergeants, (b) inspectors and (c) chief inspectors there were in March 2000; and how many he estimates there will be in Spring 2003. [72865]
§ Mr. DenhamOn 31 March 2000 there were 18,500 sergeants, 5,941 inspectors and 1,574 chief inspectors in the police service in England and Wales.
We have set a target for there to be 130,000 police officers by March 2003 and are on track to achieve this. It is for individual chief officers of police to determine, within available resources, the number of officers there should be in each rank.