§ Mr. ÖpikTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list by police authority(a) the number of officers who have retired and (b) the estimated cost of paying the pensions of retired officers in each of the last five years. [82492]
§ Mr. George HowarthInformation on the number of officers retiring is set out in the table. For information on the cost of police pensions I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my hon. Friend the Minister of State, Home Office, to the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Mr. Beith) on 23 March 1999, Official Report, columns 164–72.
167W
Numbers of police officers retiring, England and Wales, 1993–94—1997–98 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 Lancashire 150 108 134 87 110 Leicestershire 71 73 72 52 59 Lincolnshire 47 49 63 47 58 Merseyside 185 232 256 217 151 Metropolitan 721 1,302 864 904 1,027 Norfolk 55 55 75 64 68 Northamptonshire 38 65 27 24 44 Northumbria 162 153 178 136 151 North Wales 55 50 50 60 40 North Yorkshire 106 57 43 51 45 Nottinghamshire 83 79 78 67 94 South Wales 87 98 154 119 140 South Yorkshire 124 87 94 74 93 Staffordshire 106 70 50 85 133 Suffolk 43 41 53 56 51 Surrey 36 67 53 58 73 Sussex 100 78 155 145 126 Thames Valley 86 114 133 125 123 Warwickshire 50 44 29 26 54 West Mercia 58 87 59 82 72 West Midlands 228 306 285 256 314 West Yorkshire 211 152 151 161 164 Wiltshire 29 37 30 67 47 Provincial Total 3,618 3,568 3,768 3,574 3,781 England and Wales Total 4,339 4,870 4,632 4,478 4,808