HC Deb 05 December 2001 vol 376 cc332-3W
Mr. Luff

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many(a) uniformed full-time officers, (b) special constables and (c) civilian staff there are per thousand of population in each English constabulary. [8625]

Mr. Denham

Details of the numbers of special constables and civilian staff per 1,000 population are given in the table. Numbers of uniformed full-time officers are not collected centrally; number of full-time equivalent police officers per 100,000 population by police force area are given in table three in Home Office Statistical Bulletin 10/01, entitled "Police Service Strength England and Wales, 31 March 2001", published on 28 June 2001.

Strength as at 31 March 2001, by police force area—England
Police force Special constables per 1,000 population1 Civilian police staff per 1,000 population2
Avon and Somerset 0.27 0.97
Bedfordshire 0.20 0.87
Cambridgeshire 0.30 0.85
Cheshire 0.30 0.85
Cleveland 0.17 1.05
Cumbria 0.32 1.20
Derbyshire 0.28 0.90
Devon and Cornwall 0.51 0.93
Dorset 0.39 0.99
Durham 0.24 0.93
Essex 0.28 0.89
Gloucestershire 0.33 0.90
Greater Manchester 0.14 1.11
Hampshire 0.26 0.83
Hertfordshire 0.19 0.90
Humberside 0.24 0.92
Kent 0.25 1.13
Lancashire 0.25 0.96
Leicestershire 0.17 0.86
Lincolnshire 0.26 0.89
London, City of3 — —
Merseyside 0.39 1.01
Metropolitan Police3 0.11 1.41
Norfolk 0.33 0.87
Northamptonshire 0.30 1.12
Northumbria 0.21 1.00
North Yorkshire 0.24 0.79
Nottinghamshire 0.32 1.01
South Yorkshire 0.14 1.01
Staffordshire 0.38 0.88
Suffolk 0.52 0.92
Surrey 0.14 0.83
Strength as at 31 March 2001, by police force area—England
Police force Special constables per 1,000 population1 Civilian police staff per 1000 population2
Sussex 0.20 0.96
Thames Valley 0.20 0.89
Warwickshire 0.44 0.81
West Mercia 0.35 0.96
West Midlands 0.23 1.07
West Yorkshire 0.20 1.05
Wiltshire 0.25 1.02
1 Special constable figures are based on number of staff.
2 Civilian figures are based on full time equivalents.
3 Staff per 1,000 population figures for City of London and Metropolitan Police are combined.

Jeff Ennis

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on police numbers in South Yorkshire. [10385]

Mr. Denham

I understand from the Chief Constable that on 31 August the force had 3,203 police officers. This is six more officers than the force had in March 2001 and is a record number of officers. South Yorkshire Police has set a budgeted workforce total for 31 March 2002 of 3,200 officers. On 31 March 2001 the force had 1,312 civilian support staff, 21 more than in March 1997.

Sixty-seven recruits to South Yorkshire Police were funded by the Crime Fighting Fund (CFF) in 2000–01 and the force expects to recruit 61 CFF officers in 2001–02.