§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list each local authority police committee and community police consultative group in England and Wales. [10470]
§ Mr. MichaelUnder the Police and Magistrates' Courts Act 1994, now consolidated in the Police Act 1996, the 41 local authority police committees outside London were replaced on 1 April 1995 by police authorities which are free-standing corporate bodies.
The 41 police authorities in England and Wales as listed in schedule 1 to the Police Act 1996 are:
- England
- Avon and Somerset
- Bedfordshire
- Cambridgeshire
- Cheshire
- Cleveland
- Cumbria
- Derbyshire
- Devon and Cornwall
- Dorset
- Durham
- Essex
- Gloucestershire
- Greater Manchester
- Hampshire
- Hertfordshire
- Humberside
- Kent
- Lancashire
- Leicestershire
- Lincolnshire
- Merseyside
- Norfolk
- Northamptonshire
- Northumbria
- North Yorkshire
- Nottinghamshire
- South Yorkshire
- Staffordshire
- Suffolk
- Surrey
- Sussex
- Thames Valley
- Warwickshire
- West Mercia
- West Midlands
- West Yorkshire
- Wiltshire.
5 - Wales
- Dyfed Powys
- Gwent
- North Wales
- South Wales.
The 1994 Act did not alter the police authority arrangements for London. The police authorities for the metropolitan police area and the City of London police area are the Home Secretary and the Corporation of London respectively.
Details of community police consultative groups are not held centrally. Each police authority has a network of these groups to obtain the views of the local community about the policing of their area. The organisation of these networks varies in different areas but is often based on police force divisions or sub-divisions.