§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff were employed(a) in each police fraud squad, including the City of London police fraud squad, and (b) in the economic and financial crime section of the National Criminal Intelligence Service, in each year since 1996. [11269]
§ Mr. Denham(a) This information is not kept centrally and can be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, for the last two years Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary has collected data from all forces in England and Wales according to a range of 62 staff functions, one of which is fraud. The staff function for fraud is defined as
staff who predominately investigate fraud cases (not including staff who are predominately employed in asset confiscation duties)andstaff who are predominately employed to support the investigation of fraud cases (not including staff who are predominately employed to support asset confiscation duties)".The data are as follows:968W
1999–2000 2000–01 Force Police officer Civilian staff Police officer Civilian staff Avon and Somerset 17 1 15 2 Bedfordshire 8 1 13 3 Cambridgeshire 7 0 6 0 Cheshire 16 0 15 3 City of London 74 12 70 11 Cleveland 10 0 10 0 Cumbria 4 0 4 0 Derbyshire 10 1 12 1 Devon and Cornwall 10 0 18 5 Dorset 13 1 14 2 Durham 5 0 4 0 Dyfed-Powys 7 0 5 1 Essex 0 0 0 0 Gloucester 8 1 8 1 Greater Manchester 36 0 35 0 Gwent 5 0 5 0 Hampshire 11 3 12 3 Hertfordshire 10 0 11 0 Humberside 9 1 10 1 Kent 14 4 13 11 Lancashire 0 0 0 0 Leicester 0 0 7 0 Lincolnshire 7 0 7 0 Merseyside 0 4 0 4 Metropolitan police 118 0 68 2 Norfolk 7 0 7 0 North Wales 9 0 0 0 North Yorkshire 6 0 6 0 Northamptonshire 8 2 8 4 Northumbria 14 0 0 0 Nottinghamshire 11 1 17 1 South Wales 15 2 3 0 South Yorkshire 21 2 20 5
1999–2000 2000–01 Force Police officer Civilian staff Police officer Civilian staff Staffordshire 10 2 10 2 Suffolk 6 0 8 2 Surrey 12 0 17 3 Sussex 2 1 0 2 Thames Valley 15 4 15 5 Warwickshire 1 0 6 1 West Mercia 7 0 5 0 West Midlands 28 12 29 9 West Yorkshire 42 0 43 0 Wiltshire 3 0 4 0 England and Wales 616 55 560 84 (b) The number of staff employed in the National Criminal Intelligence Service as at 1 April each year was:
Year Number 1996 17 1997 16 1998 21 1999 24 2000 24 2001 54 Since April 2001, eight more staff have been recruited by the Economic Crime Unit and a further 18 people are currently being recruited. By the end of the financial year there will be 80 staff in the unit.