§ Mr. Luardasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he has received the report of the local inquiry into the objections to the proposed amalgamation of police areas in the Thames Valley: and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Roy JenkinsI have received a report from Mr. W. L. Mars-Jones, Q.C., who conducted the inquiry into objections to the amalgamation proposal, which affects the police areas of the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire and the City of Oxford and the county borough of Reading. The Report was published as a Command Paper at 2.30 p.m. this afternoon.
Mr. Mars-Jones finds the case for amalgamation of the five police areas substantiated in the interests of efficient policing of the area as a whole. I propose to proceed with an amalgamation scheme and I am now consulting the police authorities about the terms of a draft scheme which I shall in due course lay before Parliament.
I am most grateful to Mr. Mars-Jones for preparing a most comprehensive report following a long and careful inquiry.