§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the total number of(a) police officers, (b) civilian staff and (c) special constables, per head of population, in each police force in Great Britain and in total in (i) 1979, (ii) 1987 and (iii) each year since 1992.[126228]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeI am responsible only for the police service in England and Wales. The available information on police officers has been placed in the Library, and is in the form of population per police officer. Information on civilian support staffing numbers in 1979 and 1987 is not available in a format that would allow comparisons to be made with population on a force by force basis at reasonable cost. However, the aggregate totals for civilian support staff numbers for 1979 and 1987 show that there was one civilian to 1,441 of the population in March 1979 and one civilian to 1,234 of the population in March 1987. Data on the number of special constables have only been collected with regularity since September 1995.