§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many community support officers(a) there were in 2002–03 and (b) there are in 2003–04 in each police authority in England and Wales. [130472]
§ Ms BlearsHome Office funding enabled 27 police forces to recruit a total of 1,222 Community Support Officers (CSOs) by the end of 2002–03. There was a second opportunity to bid for funds earlier this year and the allocation from this will enable 36 forces to recruit a further 1,234 CSOs in 2003–04. The numbers recruited and deployed in the first year and allocated to forces in this year are as follows:
1215W
Police force 2002–03 2003–04 Avon and Somerset 12 30 Bedfordshire 0 12 Cambridgeshire 6 40 Cheshire 6 15 Cleveland 40 20 Devon and Cornwall 20 35 Dorset 7 0 Durham 10 25 Dyfed-Powys 0 5 Essex 10 45 Gloucestershire 0 30 Greater Manchester 160 25 Gwent 30 20
Police force 2002–03 2003–04 Hertfordshire 14 24 Kent 18 45 Lancashire 72 35 Leicestershire 28 17 Lincolnshire 32 10 Merseyside 40 60 Metropolitan police 499 250 Norfolk 12 18 Northamptonshire 12 0 North Wales 0 8 North Yorkshire 0 30 Northumbria 0 45 Nottinghamshire 10 35 South Wales 0 50 South Yorkshire 14 28 Staffordshire 0 10 Suffolk 0 15 Surrey 52 11 Sussex 22 40 Thames Valley 0 8 Warwickshire 11 13 West Mercia 10 30 West Midlands 0 40 West Yorkshire 60 100 Wiltshire 15 10 1,222 1,234 128 of the CSOs allocated in round 2 are already trained and deployed and a further 77 are under training. In addition there are 174 non Home Office funded CSOs on the streets making a total of 1,601 CSOs in England and Wales.