§ Mr. Spriggsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give examples of total police wastage in figures and as a percentage in the years 1938, 1958, and 1965, or the latest complete year for which he has a record; and how this compares with the industrial average.
§ Mr. George ThomasThe number of men who left police forces in England and Wales (including those transferring to other forces) was 4,765 in 1965 and 4,139 in 1958. In each case this figure was 6.1 per cent. of actual strength at the beginning of the year. Information available for 1938 is not strictly comparable, but the corresponding figures are estimated to have been 3,593 and 6.1 per cent. The 49W figures published by the Ministry of Labour are compiled on a different basis and relate to losses of employees by individual firms in manufacturing industry in Great Britain over selected periods of four weeks each. Direct comparison between the police and the industrial figures would be inappropriate, but in the four weeks ended 13th October, 1965, the number of discharges and other losses of men per 100 employed at the beginning of the period was 2.5. Police wastage was 0.5 per cent. in September, 1965 and 0.5 per cent. in October, 1965.