§ Mr. AmessTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the police establishment is in Southend, West; and how many officers were in post on 1 June. [118514]
§ Mr. Bob AinsworthSouthend, West is part of the Southend Basic Command Unit (BCU) of Essex police. Decisions about the deployment of officers between BCUs and other units of the force are matters for the Chief Constable (Mr. D. F. Stevens).
Information is not collected centrally about the number of officers deployed to Basic Command Units as at 1 June. However, I refer the hon. Member to the reply by my right hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Itchen (Mr. Denham) to the hon. Member for Southwark, North and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) of 2 December 2002, Official Report, column 589W, setting out police strength for each Basic Command Unit for each force in England and Wales as at 31 March 2002.
For Essex police as a whole, the latest figures show that at 30 September 2002 the force had 2,988 police officers, a record number, and at 31 March 2002 the force had 1,571 civilian staff.