§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers are seconded to work in Iraq; from what force areas they are seconded; what the periods of their secondment are; at what cost they are employed in Iraq; what plans he has to increase their numbers; and if he will make a statement. [172324]
§ Mr. RammellI have been asked to reply.
There are currently 44 serving UK police officers seconded to the UK Consulate-General in Basra and the UK Embassy in Baghdad. In addition, 65 officers are 1909W posted to the Jordan International Police Training centre near Amman in support of training Iraqi police officers there.
These officers are drawn from 36 of the 52 police forces in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and from the Ministry of Defence Police. Their deployments vary from six to 18 months.
The cost of supporting these officers in Iraq and Jordan from 1 April to August 2004 is estimated at £2.4 million.
There are no current plans to increase these numbers.
§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers are seconded to work overseas in countries other than Iraq; from which forces they originate; what the cost was in April; and from which budget the costs are paid. [172328]
§ Mr. RammellI have been asked to reply.
The Government do not hold centrally information about the total number of serving police officers seconded to work overseas. However, the total number of police officers seconded from UK police forces to UN, EU, and OSCE policing/peacekeeping missions is currently 145.
These officers are drawn from 37 of the 52 police forces in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and from the Ministry of Defence Police.
The provisional out-turn estimates for supporting officers in these missions in the Financial Year 2003–04 was £15.6 million.
These costs are met from the peacekeeping element of the Global and African Conflict Prevention Pools, managed jointly by the FCO, MOD and DfID.