§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, (1) pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Southwark, North and Bermondsey, of 15 March 2000,Official Report, columns 177-79W, following the Budget announcement on the Crime Fighting Fund, what estimate he has made of the (a) planned recruitment to, (b) expected wastage from and (c) change in police numbers in police forces, including transfers, including information provided in the bids for the Crime Fighting Fund and the allocation of Crime Fighting Fund money, (i) in total and (ii) in each of the next three years; what estimate he has made of the expected change in police numbers in each force and in total between March 1997 and the end of each of the first three years of the Crime Fighting Fund; and if he will make a statement; [117985]
(2) how much additional money has been allocated to the Crime Fighting Fund for (a) police recruitment and (b) each other area, in each of the three years following the Budget; what is the new total allocation to the Crime Fighting Fund for (i) police recruitment and (ii) each other area in total for each year and in total for those three years; and if he will make a statement. [117981]
§ Mr. StrawI refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry, South (Mr. Cunningham) on 27 March 2000,Official Report, columns 1-3W.
Assuming a minimum of 2,000 additional recruits in 2000–01 under the accelerated Crime Fighting Fund, and 3,000 the following year, the overall projections for total police numbers, given in my reply to the hon. Member on 15 March 2000, Official Report, columns 177-79W, would rise to 125,500 by March 2001 and 127,000 by March 2002.
My officials are consulting police service and police authority representatives on the revised allocation of new recruits under the Crime Fighting Fund to be made to forces following my announcement on 27 March that the programme would be brought forward to deliver all 5,000 recruits within two years. I will make a further announcement shortly.
§ Miss WiddecombeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Coventry, South (Mr. Cunningham) of 27 March 2000,Official Report, columns 1-3W, if the £21 million announced for the video recording of interviews will permit the video recording of all police interviews; if video recording facilities will be available in all interview rooms which currently have audio recording facilities; how the video recordings will be stored, and for how long; and if he will make a statement. [117997]
§ Mr. StrawThe £21 million allocation for the purchase of equipment by police forces for the video recording of interviews with suspects will be drawn on subject to the evaluation of an initial pilot scheme following the enactment of the necessary parliamentary legislation. Detailed questions of coverage and storage will be dealt with in the light of experience of the pilots.
§ Miss WiddecombeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Coventry South (Mr. Cunningham), of
596W27 March 2000, Official Report, column 1-3W, (1) how many additional recruits will be provided in 2000–01 as a result of the £11 million for doubling the number to be recruited during the coming financial year; what base he used to determine that recruitment would be doubled as a result of the additional £11 million; and if he will make a statement; [117992]
(2) what proportion of the £91 million will be used to assist police forces in England and Wales with recruitment and retention; what funding will be provided to each force, and for what purposes; and if he will make a statement; [117984]
(3) how many police recruits are to be recruited (a) in total and (b) using funding from the Crime Fighting Fund in each police force area in England and Wales in (i) 2000–01, (ii) 2001–02 and (iii) 2002–03, respectively; [117991]
(4) what proportion of the £91 million for modernising policing will be used to finance the national police recruiting campaign; when the campaign will begin; and if he will make a statement. [117990]
§ Mr. StrawAs a result of the budget announcement, we now anticipate recruiting at least 2,000 officers under the Crime Fighting Fund in 2000–01, with the remainder of the 5,000 in the following year. These numbers will be in addition to the projected recruitment notified to us by Chief Constables in their bids for a share of the Crime Fighting Fund.
Following my announcement on 27 March, my officials are consulting police service and police authority representatives on how the 5,000 additional recruits will be delivered over two years rather than three. I will make a further announcement shortly about this and other funding to assist forces who are having difficulties with recruitment and retention, including the development of a national recruitment campaign.
§ Miss WiddecombeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Coventry, South (Mr. Cunningham) of 27 March 2000,Official Report, columns 1-3W, if he will make a statement on the timetable for the establishment of the Government Technical Assistance Centre. [117998]
§ Mr. StrawI announced in my earlier reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry, South (Mr. Cunningham) that we will be using £25 million of capital modernisation funding to establish a Government Technical Assistance Centre (GTAC) to provide law enforcement agencies with the capability to derive intelligence and evidence from new information and communications technologies. This funding will be made available over this financial year and next and will pay for the design and development of a system for processing a wide range of computer-to-computer communications and stored data formats. GTAC will begin to operate in 2001–02 and reach full operating capability during 2002–03.
§ Miss WiddecombeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer to hon. Friend the Member for Coventry, South (Mr. Cunningham) of 27 March 2000,Official Report,
597Wcolumns 1-3W, how the £40 million for modernising the prison estate is to be spent; and if he will make a statement. [117999]
§ Mr. StrawThe additional £40 million for prisons which I announced in my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry, South (Mr. Cunningham) on 27 March 2000,Official Report, columns 1-3W, will enable a start to be made on a programme to increase prison capacity to meet the projected increase in the prison population. The programme will include further building within existing prisons, and making better use of existing capacity by re-roleing prisons where the change in composition of the prison population makes this necessary. I will write to the right hon. Member with the details as soon as they are finalised.
§ Miss WiddecombeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to Note 5 attached to Home Office Press Release 070/2000, what discussions he has had with the bodies mentioned in the Note about the way in which the £91 million for modernising policing is to be allocated; and if he will make a statement. [117988]
§ Mr. StrawMy reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry, South (Mr. Cunningham) on 27 March 2000,Official Report, columns 1-3W, indicated the areas where the additional £91 million funds may be allocated. I will be consulting the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Association of Police Authorities, the Local Government Association and the police staff associations before announcing final decisions.
§ Miss WiddecombeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Coventry, South (Mr. Cunningham) of 27 March 2000, columns 1-3W, what plans he has to allocate the full amount of £34 million announced by the Prime Minister in September 1999 for the expansion of the DNA database. [117996]
§ Mr. StrawThe funding of £34 million is being allocated to police forces across England and Wales to enable them to double the number of submissions to the National DNA Database over the next two years. By April 2002, the database should hold approximately 1.5 million DNA offender profiles.
This funding represents a first step towards the Government's aim that the database should hold the DNA profiles of the whole of the active criminal population, estimated to be in the region of three million.