§ Ms KellyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he has introduced to increase the recruitment of police officers in Greater Manchester; what the cost of these measures was; and what evaluation has been made of their success. [152809]
§ Mr. Charles Clarke[holding answer 9 March 20011: The Crime Fighting Fund (CFF) will enable police forces to recruit 9,000 additional officers over and above the number previously planned in the three years to 2002–03. Under the CFF, Greater Manchester police have been allocated a total of 588 extra recruits.
According to the latest information provided by Greater Manchester police, the force now expects to recruit 147 CFF recruits this financial year. CFF grant payments made to Greater Manchester police so far this financial year total £1,388,171. CFF grant payments to forces are paid on the basis of anticipated recruitment of CFF officers. Variations in actual recruitment may affect total amounts due to individual forces, any overpayment may be reclaimed or offset against future payments.
The CFF is successfully helping Greater Manchester police to recruit officers over and above the force's previous plans.
To help forces meet their recruitment targets, the first ever National Recruitment Campaign was launched on 30 August. To 4 March 2001 over 121,000 responses had been received to the campaign advertisements. These had generated over 25,500 Expressions of Interest (EOIs) to forces, 1,598 of which had been passed to Greater Manchester police. The total expected campaign spend in 2000–01 is £6.98 million excluding value added tax. The costs of the campaign cannot be broken down by individual police force as media for the campaign have been bought nationally.
The campaign has been very successful in generating inquiries and Expressions of Interest. Responsibility for processing EOIs rests with forces. Forces are being asked to report on the outcome of the EOIs with a view to assessing the effectiveness of the campaign.
For an indication of the expected impact of these measures and of the force's local recruitment activity on force strength, I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to her on 9 March 2001, Official Report, column 387W.
§ Ms KellyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many members of the Metropolitan police had previously served as police officers in the north-west region in each year since 1990. [152812]
§ Mr. Charles Clarke[holding answer 9 March 2001]:I understand from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis that it is not possible to provide the information for each year since 1990. I am told, however, that a survey of serving officers indicates that there are currently 100 officers in the Metropolitan police who previously served as officers in a force in the north-west region of England.