HC Deb 11 November 1937 vol 328 cc1879-80W
Mr. Groves

asked the Home Secretary whether he will make a statement on the proposed scheme for police road educators; and, in particular, how many officers it is proposed to employ, what duties will be allotted to them, what cars these officers will be provided with, and what will be the estimated maximum speed of these cars?

Sir S. Hoare

The scheme for augmenting the motor patrols in the police areas of Lancashire, Cheshire, Liverpool, Manchester and Salford in the north and Essex and the Metropalitan Police District in the south by a total of about 800 men is proceeding on the lines laid down by my predecessor in the reply which he gave to my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Clitheroe on the 17th February last. The necessary recruiting and training of the men and of recruits to replace them in the forces has not proceeded so quickly as had been anticipated, but it is well in hand; a number of men have been trained already, and it is expected that the full number will be on the road by the beginning of April next. As to their duties, it has been made clear that whilst there is, of course, no intention of relaxing the enforcement of the law, the experiment is designed primarily to inculcate a higher standard of road sense and behaviour on the part of all classes of road users, and not to increase the number of prosecutions. The cars which they will use will be selected by the individual Chief Contables taking part in the experiment and will be of different types.