Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) police officers, and (2) police community support officers, were employed in neighbourhood policing in Devon & Cornwall Police in each year from 2010 to present.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes data annually on the function of police workers, as at 31 March each year, in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales.
Since 2012, the Home Office has published statistics on the functions of police workers which includes a “neighbourhood policing” function. From 31 March 2015 onwards, the Home Office replaced the ‘old’ functions framework with the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy’s (CIPFA) Police Objective Analysis (POA) framework. The POA framework also includes a “neighbourhood policing” function although the two frameworks are not directly comparable.
Data on the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) in neighbourhood policing roles, collected under the CIPFA POA framework, in Devon and Cornwall, between 31 March 2015 and 2023, can be found in Tables F1 and F3 of the data tables accompanying each publication. The Home Office do not hold directly comparable data on the number of police officers and PCSOs employed in neighbourhood policing roles for years prior to 2015.
Table 1 shows the number of FTE police officers and PCSOs employed in neighbourhood policing roles in Devon and Cornwall between the 31 March 2015 and 2023. As at 31 March 2023, there were 264 FTE police officers employed in neighbourhood policing roles in Devon and Cornwall, an increase of 1.6% (4 FTE) compared to March 2015. The number of officers in neighbourhood policing roles had been declining between 2015 and 2018, when it reached a low of 220 FTE, before increasing year on year to levels seen in March 2015. Whilst the number of officers in neighbourhood police officers is similar to 2015, the proportion has decreased by 1.2 percentage points from 8.9% in 2015 to 7.7% in 2023.
As at 31 March 2023, there were 129 FTE PCSOs employed in neighbourhood policing roles, a decrease of 61.2% (204 FTE) compared to March 2015 when there were 333 FTE PCSOs employed in neighbourhood policing roles. Whilst the number of PCSOs has been declining, the proportion of PCSOs employed in neighbourhood policing roles has remained consistent.
Table 1: Number and proportion of full-time equivalent police officers and PCSOs employed in neighbourhood policing roles, as at 31 March 2015 to 2023, Devon and Cornwall
As at 31 March | Police officers | PCSOs | ||
Number | Proportion (%) | Number | Proportion (%) | |
2015 | 260 | 8.9 | 333 | 100.0 |
2016 | 240 | 8.4 | 339 | 100.0 |
2017 | 231 | 8.2 | 300 | 100.0 |
2018 | 220 | 7.7 | 245 | 100.0 |
2019 | 228 | 7.9 | 203 | 100.0 |
2020 | 228 | 7.7 | 189 | 100.0 |
2021 | 236 | 8.0 | 164 | 100.0 |
2022 | 253 | 7.9 | 154 | 99.4 |
2023 | 264 | 7.7 | 129 | 100.0 |
Some forces are not able to make a clear distinction between certain subfunctions and therefore record the majority of, or all, employees under one function. This is particularly apparent for the ‘Neighbourhood Policing’ (1a) and ‘Incident (Response) Management’ (1b) functions, so the Home Office recommends using the wider function of “Local Policing”. Data for local policing is shown in Table 2 below.
Table 2: Number and proportion of full-time equivalent police officers and PCSOs employed in local policing roles, as at 31 March 2015 to 2023, Devon and Cornwall
As at 31 March | Police officers | PCSOs | ||
Number | Proportion (%) | Number | Proportion (%) | |
2015 | 1,393 | 47.5 | 333 | 100.0 |
2016 | 1,310 | 45.8 | 339 | 100.0 |
2017 | 1,259 | 44.9 | 300 | 100.0 |
2018 | 1,291 | 45.5 | 245 | 100.0 |
2019 | 1,304 | 45.0 | 203 | 100.0 |
2020 | 1,416 | 47.6 | 189 | 100.0 |
2021 | 1,459 | 49.5 | 164 | 100.0 |
2022 | 1,522 | 47.7 | 154 | 99.4 |
2023 | 1,679 | 48.8 | 129 | 100.0 |
Data for the ‘as at 31 March 2024’ publication will be published in July 2024 as part of the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many of the recommendations from the HM Chief Inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service and HM Inspector of Constabulary report Joint Inspection of the Investigation and Prosecution of Fatal Road Traffic Incidents, published in February 2015, have been taken up.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Six of the 15 recommendations in the Joint Inspection of the Investigation and Prosecution of Fatal Road Traffic Incidents report were addressed to the police or to the College of Policing and are therefore operational in nature. It is the responsibility of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to ensure individual Chief Constables act on HMICFRS’ findings.
Nine of the recommendations were addressed to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which falls under the remit of the Attorney General’s Office. The CPS carefully considers each and every recommendation made by the Inspectorate when it reports, implementing them as appropriate.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to (1) the remarks by Lord Murray of Blidworth on 28 February (HL Deb col 125) that "the service standard of a wait of no longer than 25 minutes for Border Force officers has been maintained throughout that period", and (2) the statement made by the chief executive of Eurostar, Gwendoline Cazenave, on 24 January that Eurostar are running trains more than a third empty, what is the current service standard of UK Border Force for each of the hours of operation in (a) St Pancras, (b) Paris, (c) Brussels, and (d) Amsterdam; and whether the same service could be achieved if Eurostar were able to run the trains full.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Border Force operate the same service standards across all international airports, ports and rail termini. The Border Force operation across international rail operates within published service standard levels. Border Force are only one part of a port ecosystem and we are unable to speculate on Eurostar commercial operations or the wider operation and capacity of port infrastructure and processes outside of our control.
We have regular engagement with partner countries and continue to discuss with them, and Eurostar, future border arrangements and infrastructure availability’.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to (1) the remarks by Lord Murray of Blidworth on 28 February (HL Deb col 125) that "the service standard of a wait of no longer than 25 minutes for Border Force officers has been maintained throughout that period", and (2) the statement made by the chief executive of Eurostar, Gwendoline Cazenave, on 24 January that Eurostar are running trains more than a third empty, what discussions they are having with the governments of (a) France, (b) Belgium, and (c) the Netherlands, to facilitate increasing the passenger throughput; and what support they are giving to Eurostar to enable them to carry the full capacity of their trains without delay.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Border Force operate the same service standards across all international airports, ports and rail termini. The Border Force operation across international rail operates within published service standard levels. Border Force are only one part of a port ecosystem and we are unable to speculate on Eurostar commercial operations or the wider operation and capacity of port infrastructure and processes outside of our control.
We have regular engagement with partner countries and continue to discuss with them, and Eurostar, future border arrangements and infrastructure availability’.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their policy for disposal of small boats used by asylum seekers crossing the English Channel.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
All vessels that have been subject to seizure are held by Border Force until completion of any criminal investigation activities. The majority of boats are not fit for re-sale or to ever go to sea again, as they arrive in very poor condition and may be damaged during the recovery process. The boats are disposed of by Border Force’s approved contractors and, where appropriate, any suitable materials are recycled.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) bicycles were reported as stolen, and (2) people were prosecuted for cycle theft, in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes official statistics on the number of bicycle theft offences and their investigative outcomes reported to and recorded by the police in England and Wales, on a quarterly basis.
These can be accessed here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
The Ministry of Justice collects and publishes information on prosecutions as part of the outcomes by offence data tool.
This can be accessed here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-june-2022.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Harrington of Watford on 1 June (HL337), and his remarks on 7 June in relation to Ukraine that “visas take between two and three days" and that "the number of applications awaiting conclusions is about 19,000" (HL Deb col 1088), how many of those applicants have been waiting for clearance for (1) one, (2) two, (3) five, and (4) more than 10, weeks; and what are the reasons for the longer delays.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
Information on the number of visas granted under these schemes can be on the GOV.UK webpage: Ukraine Family Scheme and Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (Homes for Ukraine) visa data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Applications are normally processed in date order from when documents were uploaded, or after an appointment at a Visa Application Centre (VAC). We are working seven days a week to process applications.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will respond to the email from Lord Berkeley to Lord Harrington of Watford sent on 22 April concerning the visa applications GWF064118049 and GWF064118784.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Lord Harrington responded to the Lord Berkeley’s correspondence on 19 May 2022.