§ Sandra GidleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police were allocated to front line duties in Hampshire in each year since 1997. [157096]
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§ Ms BlearsInformation on front line policing is not available. We are, as part of the Police Performance Assessment Framework, collecting data from forces so that we can publish a baseline estimate of front line policing for all forces. This will be a valuable tool to drive up the amount of time spent on front line duties.
Published data are in the form of total police strength by police force area.
Number of police officers1 in Hampshire, 1997–2003 As at 31 March Police officers2 1997 3,452 1998 3,490 1999 3,473 2000 3,419 2001 3,438 2002 3,480 2003 33,668 1Full time equivalents. 2Excludes officers seconded to NCS, NCIS and Central Services. 3Comparable strength.
§ Mr. LawsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the police retirement age is; what plans he has to increase this; what estimate he has made of the cost savings that would accrue if the retirement age was lifted to 65; and if he will make a statement. [156593]
§ Ms BlearsThere is no fixed retirement age for the police. Under the Police Pensions Regulations officers with at least 25 years' service may retire with an immediate pension from age 50. Officers may also retire with an immediate pension, irrespective of age, after 30 years' service, when they will have accrued maximum benefits. This means that an officer who joined at age 18½—the earliest age at which it is possible to start as a police officer—is entitled to retire at age 48½ a with a full pension. Otherwise officers become eligible to retire with an immediate pension on reaching their compulsory retirement age, which ranges from 55 to 60 depending on the rank and force of the officer concerned. Officers with less than 25 years' service who leave the police with deferred benefits will receive their pension at age 60.
The Government are currently considering options for the modernisation of police pensions to make them more flexible and affordable for future entrants. We have launched a UK-wide consultation exercise on proposals for a new police pension scheme, to be introduced by April 2006. One of the key features of our proposals is the introduction of a minimum pension age of 55 for new entrants and the raising of the deferred pension age from 60 to 65 in line with the proposed rise in the normal pension age in other public service schemes.
Information is not available on the level of savings that would be involved if the police retirement age were to be raised to 65 for all officers. If such a calculation were carried out it is arguable that the cost implications 1033W for operational effectiveness should also be taken into account. The Department of Work and Pensions Green Paper of December 2002, in proposing a normal public service pension age of 65, recognised that services like the police and the armed forces had specific needs which made a lower pension age appropriate for their members.