§ 28. Mr. Jim CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to increase the level of police recruitment; and if he will make a statement. [147117]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeThe Government want to see police numbers rising.
Our spending plans therefore make generous provision, intended to meet major pay, pensions and other pressures on forces as well as providing ring-fenced funding to increase recruitment through the crime fighting fund (CFF). We anticipate that these measures will enable forces to increase police service numbers to record levels by March 2003.
The CFF will enable police forces to recruit 9,000 officers over and above the number previously planned in the three years 2000–01 to 2002–03.
To help forces to meet their recruitment targets, the first ever national recruitment campaign was launched on 30 August 2000 and the second phase of the campaign commenced on 27 December. By 14 January 2001, there had been 78,000 responses to the campaign and 17,070 expressions of interest had been forwarded to police forces.
The Metropolitan police service and the City of London police have been experiencing particular proble Ms in attracting new recruits. To address these problems we 428W agreed to an increase of £3,327 per annum in the London allowance paid to those officers in each force who were recruited on or after 1 September 1994 and who are not in receipt of housing allowance.
In addition, agreement has been reached between the Metropolitan police service (MPS) and the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) to provide free rail travel within a 70-mile radius of London for serving MPS police officers. The arrangements will come into effect from Wednesday 14 February. The Home Office will meet the annual cost of £2.45 million.
The police negotiating board is currently looking at whether there should be an allowance for officers in any other forces. We await any recommendations it may make on this or any other issues in relation to police pay and allowances.