§ Mr. MullinTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he has taken since 23 March to accelerate the process of establishing voluntary registers of membership of freemasonry in police forces in England and Wales; and how many police forces have now indicated that they have specific plans for introducing such registers.[81792]
§ Mr. BoatengOn 1 April, the Home Office wrote at official level to the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) requesting that ACPO write to each Chief Constable in England and Wales to ask them to set up voluntary, internal registers for their forces. ACPO duly wrote to each Chief Constable on 7 April. It is too early to say how many Chief Constables will set up such registers. However, an earlier ACPO survey of Chief Constables' views indicated that the overwhelming majority of Chief Constables supported in principle their creation.
§ Mr. MullinTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 23 March 1999,Official Report, columns 177–78, when he now expects numerical data on freemasons within the police and other parts of the criminal justice system to be available. [81793]
§ Mr. BoatengAs soon as the voluntary internal registers which all Chief Constables in England and Wales have been asked by the Association of Chief Police Officers to put in place have been established, we will be able to make available for statistical purposes such numerical data as these registers reveal, on an ongoing basis. We anticipate that the first useful information will be available by October this year.
Arrangements for other categories of occupation under Home Office responsibility, including release of data for statistical purposes, will be determined once the internal registration arrangements for the Police Service have been set up and are in operation.