§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the Code of Practice on the police use of firearms and less lethal weapons. [150183]
§ Ms BlearsI refer my hon. Friend to the written ministerial statement I made on 3 December 2003,Official Report, column 61WS.
§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how he intends to sustain the planned increase in police numbers. [150128]
§ Ms BlearsThe number of police officers in England and Wales reached a record 136,386 on 31 August 2003. The major component in the rise in police numbers since March 2000 has been the use of the Crime Fighting Fund to fund additional recruits above that which forces were planning to train.
As announced in the provisional funding settlement for 2004–05 on 19 November 2003, the Home Office will provide continuation funding for the 9,000 posts created by the Crime Fighting Fund from 2000–03. In addition it is proposed to provide part funding of 60 per cent for the 650 additional Crime Fighting Fund recruits in 2003–04.
The Home Office is also promoting a number of initiatives to ensure the increasing effectiveness of the resources devoted to policing. Both workforce modernisation and reducing bureaucracy will release officers to do the job they were trained to do and help them undertake their duties in an increasingly effective way. We will this year be establishing a baseline measure for the amount of time officers spend on front line duties, which will enable forces and police authorities to plan for improvement. The National Intelligence Model developed by the police service will enable forces to deploy officers in a more strategic way.
§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers have retired early owing to ill-health in each year since 1997. [151416]
§ Ms BlearsThe figures relating to the number of police ill-health retirements between 1997 and 2003 are given in the table.
445W
Medical retirements 1996–97 2,012 1997–98 1,811 1998–99 1,642 1999–2000 1,232 2000–01 1,209 2001–02 1,114 2002–03 821