§ Bob RussellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was paid in attendance allowances to members of police authorities in England and Wales in each of the last 10 municipal years; and how much he estimates will be allocated in the current municipal year. [118744]
§ Ms BlearsThe Police Act 1996 provided for the reimbursement of expenses and allowances by police authorities to their members from within their own budget (schedule 2, paragraph 25 and schedule 2A, paragraph 20). Payment was subject to any framework determined by the Secretary of State and approved by the Treasury. This framework was deregulated by virtue of section 107 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2002 which amended Schedule 2 of the 1996 Act to allow police authorities to develop their own local expenses and allowances schemes. The Home Office has never made direct payment to police authorities to cover the costs of allowances payable to police authority members and neither is there any power to require police authorities to provide this data to the Home Office. Accordingly, there is no central record held by the Department of the total costs borne by authorities in respect of such expenses and the cost of collecting this information from individual authorities would be prohibitive.