§ Miss Quennellasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the present strength of the Special Constabulary now is, in England and Wales, compared with the permitted establishment; and if he will publish a table showing the position, force by force, to the nearest convenient date.
§ Mr. CarlisleThe establishments of special constables are under review. In the table below, which gives strengths at 31st May 1973, the column headed "Recruitment Target" is the current assessment by chief officers of the numbers of special constables they could usefully employ.
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Force Strength on 31st May, 1973 Recruitment Target Bedford and Luton 228 — Bradford 130 200 Birmingham 414 600 Bristol 185 — Cheshire 600 1,475 City of London 158 150 Cumbria 412 1,134 Derby 539 2,530 Devon and Cornwall 1,671 — Dorset and Bournemouth 377 694 Durham 534 — Dyfed-Powys 197 — Essex and Southend 440 650 Gloucester 631 900 Gwent 337 928 Gwynedd 633 1,160
Force Strength on 31st May, 1973 Recruitment Target Hampshire 520 805 Hertfordshire 336 500 Kent 1,083 2,629 Kingston-upon-Hull 118 — Lancashire 1,154 — Leeds 71 150 Leicester 498 620 Lincoln 1,124 1,000 Liverpool 296 500 Manchester 120 300 Metropolitan 1,573 5,000 Mid Anglia 414 500 Norfolk 565 788 Northampton 436 — Northumberland 600 900 Nottingham 681 1,091 Sheffield 192 300 Somerset 696 800 South Wales 420 600 Staffordshire 684 1,000 Suffolk 575 522 Surrey 386 500 Sussex 540 800 Teesside 165 495 Thames Valley 800 1,500 Warwickshire 799 1,200 West Mercia 811 1,759 West Midlands 526 — West Yorkshire 1,155 2,300 Wiltshire 285 — York and North East Yorkshire 669 — Total 25,778