§ Mr. HealdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the full-time equivalent number of officers was who(a) transferred out of Metropolitan police and (b) were seconded to other forces as a result of the major boundary changes in 2000; and if he will provide a figure for the number of officers in the Metropolitan police, taking the changes into account, immediately prior to the boundary change which is comparable with subsequent equivalent figures. [157779]
§ Mr. Charles Clarke[holding answer 10 April 2001]: I understand from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis that between 1 January 1999 and 6 April 2001, 108 officers transferred to the Essex, Hertfordshire and Surrey forces.
131WI am also told by the Commissioner that 466 police officers were seconded to the forces of Essex, Hertfordshire and Surrey when the boundary change took effect on 1 April 2000. These officers will return to the Metropolitan police over the following two years as and when replacements are recruited by the three county forces.
The effects of the boundary change were incorporated into the police funding formula and the overall transfer was in terms of financial resources, not of officers. Where data on police numbers are used in the formula, a notional transfer of 887 from the Metropolitan police to the three county forces was applied. Because it is for police authorities and Chief Constables to decide how resources are utilised, it is not appropriate to convert the notional transfer directly into a full-time equivalent strength for the Metropolitan police immediately prior to the boundary changes.
Between 31 March and 30 September 2000, the strength of the Metropolitan police fell by 790, to 24,695. This will have been due to a combination of boundary change resources and the temporary secondments to Essex, Hertfordshire and Surrey. By 31 January 2001, the numbers of officers in the Metropolitan police had risen to 24,861, 166 more than on 30 September 2000.