HC Deb 21 November 2000 vol 357 cc153-5W
Mr. Ruane

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many complaints there were against the police for(a) racial harassment and (b) abuse by police authority in the last 20 years. [139601]

Mr. Charles Clarke

Information is not available in precisely the form requested. Data collected centrally on a financial year basis include complaints of racial discrimination and complaints of oppressive behaviour by the police. Data for completed complaints are available from 1992. Prior to 1992, available figures do not include the Metropolitan police service.

The information from 1992 is shown in the table:

Completed complaints of:
Year Racially discriminatory behaviour Oppressive behaviour
1992 461 16,559
1993 450 16,474
1994 608 16,666
1995–96 620 16,850
1996–97 634 17,320
1997–98 566 16,599
1998–99 575 14,457
1999–2000 895 13,014

Mr. Ruane

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many reported cases of drunkenness there were in each police authority in the past 10 years. [139600]

Mr. Charles Clarke

The number of cases of drunkenness reported to the police are not collected centrally.

Available information held centrally showing the number of offenders cautioned or found guilty of offences of drunkenness is given in the table.

Due to disproportionate costs, selected years only are given.

Number of 'known offenders'1 for offences of drunkenness by police force area 1990, 1994, 1997, 1998 and 1999
Police force area 1990 1994 1997 1998 1999
Avon and Somerset 623 204 361 481 542
Bedfordshire 237 347 355 489 374
Cambridgeshire 301 433 222 192 196
Cheshire 647 761 919 1,063 929
City of London 260 170 123 21 30
Cleveland 709 1,084 2,075 1,372 1,167
Cumbria 760 504 1,007 1,036 1,010
Derbyshire 577 165 387 372 327
Devon and Cornwall 1,387 1,268 1,769 1,557 1,485
Dorset 700 264 274 405 348
Durham 445 226 418 527 557
Essex 465 571 1,028 887 800
Gloucestershire 148 101 175 266 185
Greater Manchester 3,099 2,546 2,278 2,316 1,903
Hampshire 2,008 1,365 1,836 1,954 1,849
Hertfordshire 249 132 493 643 646
Humberside 500 234 345 298 324
Kent 577 741 963 1,167 1,412
Lancashire 1,547 1,523 2,870 2,806 3,038
Leicestershire 128 116 115 83 82
Lincolnshire 342 55 692 831 770
Merseyside 5,864 6,356 8,064 8,602 6,567
Metropolitan police 40,823 19,024 2,412 1,940 1,946
Norfolk 312 203 266 224 191
Northamptonshire 426 424 279 293 260
Northumbria 4,256 4,072 7,113 6,417 6,392
North Yorkshire 386 264 410 456 492
Nottinghamshire 510 351 545 529 543
South Yorkshire 3,233 1,648 1,877 1,704 1,909
Staffordshire 905 494 599 547 388
Suffolk 336 428 719 547 505
Surrey 177 191 245 401 565
Sussex 715 1,126 1,069 1,043 834
Thames Valley 1,987 1,443 1,350 1,435 1,252
Warwickshire 60 78 259 387 260
West Mercia 835 984 1,334 1,106 967
West Midlands 1,802 2,330 1,570 1,186 670
West Yorkshire 2,673 1,419 1,946 2,400 2,406
Wiltshire 498 673 686 770 598
Dyfed-Powys 307 249 382 420 340
Gwent 1,347 1,061 1,234 953 878
North Wales 685 788 980 1,277 1,278
South Wales 2,549 1,474 2,431 2,184 1,805
England and Wales 86,395 57,890 54,475 53,587 49,020
1Those cautioned or convicted at all courts.

Note:

Changes in the number of persons cautioned or found guilty for drunkenness offences including the variations between police force areas are likely to reflect changes or variations in police practice, as well as actual changes or variations in the level of drunkenness. To a large extent, they reflect changes in the Metropolitan police, which has fallen from 47 per cent. in 1990 to 4 per cent. in 1999 of the total England and Wales 'known offenders'. In 1995 the Metropolitan police introduced informal warnings for offences of drunkenness.