§ Mr. BatisteTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of police officers who would be returned to operational duties if the West Yorkshire police authority adopted the best practice on civilianisation.
§ Mr. Peter LloydOf the 2,706 "key posts" in West Yorkshire police, 1,838—or 68 per cent.—have been civilianised. A number of forces have achieved rates at 80 per cent. or more. Although there is not necessarily an exact correlation between the number of posts civilianised and the number of officers thereby released for operational duties, it is reasonable to assume that if West Yorkshire were to civilianise 80 per cent. of "key posts", some 300 further officers could be released for operational duties.
§ Mr. BatisteTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list police authorities in the order of the extent to which they have implemented the policy of civilianisation.
§ Mr. Peter LloydThe following table shows the proportion of "key posts"—that is, those regarded by Her Majesty's inspectorate of constabulary as suitable for civilianisation—which had been civilianised by each provincial force up to the end of 1990. Comparative information is not available for the Metropolitan police.
Force Percentage of "Key Posts" civilianised Cheshire 64.8 Merseyside 65.4 Greater Manchester 66.3 Northumbria 67.0 Hertfordshire 67.3 Hampshire 67.5 West Yorkshire 67.9 Gwent 68.7 City of London 69.4 South Yorkshire 69.6 Gloucestershire 69.7 Lancashire 69.8 Avon and Somerset 70.5 Northamptonshire 72.2 Staffordshire 72.2 Norfolk 72.3 North Yorkshire 72.3 Essex 72.5 Derbyshire 72.6 Bedfordshire 73.0 West Midlands 73.1 Nottinghamshire 73.3 Durham 73.4 Thames Valley 73.7 Warwickshire 74.1 Humberside 74.1 Cleveland 74.3 Sussex 75.3 South Wales 75.5 Devon and Cornwall 75.8 Dorset 75.8 Lincolnshire 76.1 Leicestershire 76.5 Suffolk 76.8 Cambridgeshire 78.6 Kent 78.8 Wiltshire 79.0 Cumbria 80.2 Dyfed Powys 81.1 West Mercia 81.6 North Wales 84.2 Surrey 86.7 Average 72.1