§ Mr. Eldon Griffithsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in the light of the wide variations between one police force and another on the availability of anti-riot equipment and training in its use, if he will take steps to ensure that police officers sent to perform mutual aid duties in police areas whose equipment and training differs from their own, are adequately protected; if he will provide further advice to police authorities about the benefits to all forces of having compatible equipment and tactics; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MayhewIt is for each chief officer of police in England ad Wales, in agreement as necessary with his 5W police authority and taking into account advice issued centrally, to decide what public order equipment to acquire. Chief officers arrange training in the use of the equipment. We are satisfied that those concerned, both locally and in the Association of Chief Police Officers and the local authority associations, are aware of the need for police officers to have proper protection on public order duties, in the provision of mutual aid as well as within their own force areas. The police training council, on which both the police and the local authority associations are represented, has endorsed the development of arrangements for standardised public order training which take account of the mutual aid scheme. The Department will report progress on that development to the next meeting of the council, on 27 April.