HC Deb 15 June 2004 vol 422 cc871-2W
Simon Hughes

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers there were in each police force in Greater London in each year since 1997. [177076]

Ms Blears

The number of police officers in the City of London and the Metropolitan Police Service are given in the table:

Police officer strength full-time equivalent
Strength as at: City of London Metropolitan police Total
31 March 1997 859 26,677 27,536
31 March 1998 825 26,094 26,919
31 March 1999 778 26,073 26,851
31 March 2000 732 25,485 26,217
31 March 2001 703 24,878 25,581
31 March 2002 764 26,223 26,987
31 March 20031 808 27,984 28,792
31 December 20031, 2 842 29,441 30,283
1 Comparable with previous data—excludes staff on career breaks and maternity/paternity leave.
2 The latest available figures for the end of the year were issued with Home Office Press Release 095/2004 on 2 March 2004.

Simon Hughes

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many(a) Ministry of Defence police officers, (b) British Transport police officers, (c) National Crime Squad officers and (d) police force officers there were in Greater London in each year since 1997. [177099]

Ms Blears

The Home Office does not collect numbers of Ministry of Defence police officers. British Transport police officer numbers were collected for the first time on 31 March 2003. The National Crime Squad was established with effect from 1 April 1998 so data were collected only from 31 March 1999.

Available data are given in the table:

Police strength (FTE) as at: British Transport Police National Crime Squad Metropolitan Police and City of London
31 March 1997 — — 27,536
31 March 1998 — — 26,919
31 March 1999 — 1,333 26,851
31 March 2000 — 1,389 26,217
31 March 2001 — 1,308 25,581
31 March 2002 — 1,176 26,987
31 March 2003 2,176 1,175 28,792
30 September 2003 1,939 1,179 29,765