Police Vehicles (Hansard, 11 June 1999)

§ Dr. Cable
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research his Department has(a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the need for and use of rapid response by police vehicles. [86200]

§ Mr. Boateng
No research on this precise subject has been commissioned. The only recent research in this area of police work was conducted by the Home Office Police Research Group who published in 1997 the results of a study of deaths and serious injuries resulting from police vehicle accidents. It found that three police activities accounted for 88 per cent. of fatal accidents—45 per cent. were during pursuit/follow situations; 23 per cent. arose during responses to emergency calls and 20 per cent. were routine patrol cases. This research was used by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) in its recent report and recommendations on police pursuit training.

§ Dr. Cable
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what were the average response times of police cars to emergency calls in the last year for which figures are available. [86201]

§ Mr. Boateng
The information requested is not available centrally, but in 1997–98, in England and Wales, 88 per cent. of police immediate responses to incidents were within the targets set by forces.

§ Dr. Cable
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what are the rules governing blue light police car responses. [86202]

§ Mr. Boateng
This is an operational matter for chief officers of police. There is a nationally agreed Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Pursuit Code of Practice and work is going forward to implement recommendations from the recent ACPO report on police pursuit driver training. One of the recommendations in the ACPO report is that all police vehicles that engage in pursuits and emergency response should be equipped with both sirens and emergency blue lights. Such equipment should be used in all but exceptional circumstances. It is already policy to consider continuously the consequences of a pursuit and whether to break it off.