§ 30. Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received on the number of beat policemen in Lancashire. [48427]
§ Mr. MichaelThe Lancashire Police Authority made representations about the funding settlement for 1998–99, but it expressed no particular concern about the number of police officers on the beat. The previous Government's Police and Magistrates' Courts Act 1994 gave chief constables the responsibility to determine the number of officers in each force within available resources.
Provisional police manpower figures for March 1998 show that the number of constables in Lancashire increased by 12 over the previous 12 months to 2,504, and that there was an overall increase in police numbers of ten to 3,257. The Lancashire Police Authority will have a spending capacity for 1998–99 of £177 million. This is an increase of 3.8 per cent. or £6.4 million over 1997–98.