§ Mr. DoddsTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many(a) police officers and (b) prison 787W officers have applied for the Scheme for the Purchase of Evacuated Dwellings in Northern Ireland in the current year; how many have been successful; and what the total cost was in each case. [86620]
§ Jane KennedyFrom 1 April 2002 175 prison officers have applied for SPED, and to date 112 have been accepted on to the scheme. Within the Police Service of Northern Ireland, 126 officers have applied for SPED and 107 have been accepted.
The Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE), operates the SPED scheme. Under the scheme, if the Chief Constable issues a certificate confirming that a threat or intimidation is real, this is sufficient for the NIHE to invoke the scheme. Therefore, the NIHE do not know the background of cases. Up to 12 December the NIHE have had 433 applications at a total cost of £22.213 million.