Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much funding they have provided in the current financial year to police forces in England and Wales to meet the cost of employer contributions for national insurance.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
We have provided a comprehensive funding settlement that enables police forces to carry out their important work and meet their financial obligations, including national insurance contributions.
In 2018/19 we increased total investment in the police system by over £460m. This includes £280m in force funding from increases in Council Tax precept income.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many additional staff the Border Force has allocated to cope with any expected additional workload at the port of Holyhead following Brexit.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
As we prepare to leave the EU, it is vital that we continue to ensure opera-tional resilience at the border.
Border Force has recruited a Readiness Task Force to provide operational resilience to the frontline and allow existing staff to undertake EU exit re-lated training. The c.300 multi-disciplinary Border Force officers will be fully deployed by the end of the year.
An additional c.600 Border Force officers are being recruited in 2018/19 to respond to the new requirements it will face as a result of EU Exit and to provide resilience at key locations.
Border Force will always ensure it has the necessary resources to keep the border secure and will respond flexibly to emerging requirements through ongoing assessments of operational needs
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many arrests by the police in England and Wales there were in (1) 2007–08, and (2) 2016–17.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office collects and publishes data on the number of arrests for notifiable offences in England and Wales annually, as part of the ‘Police powers and procedures, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin. These figures cover the financial year (ending 31 March).
The latest instalment, which was released on 26 October 2017, can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-powers-and-procedures-england-and-wales -
The data show that in the year ending 31 March 2008 the police made 1,475,266 arrests in England and Wales. In the year ending 31 March 2017 the police made 779,660 arrests in England and Wales. (see page 10 of the 'Police powers and procedures, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin. in the section "Trends in the number of arrests" (see attached)
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many Safer Neighbourhood Teams in England and Wales are currently operational.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office does not collect data on the number of Neighbourhood Policing teams that are operational. The Home Office does collect data annually on the function of police officers and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), including the number of full time equivalent police officers and PCSOs primarily employed in Neighbourhood Policing teams and/or Safer Neighbourhood teams. This information can be found in the data tables published alongside the annual ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales
Latest data as at 31 March 2017 can be found in the Tables F1, F3 F4 and F6 of the police workforce statistics published in July 2017: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/629865/police-workforce-tabs-jul17.ods
Officers and PCSOs with multiple responsibilities or designations are recorded under their primary function. The data do not therefore provide a complete picture of all officers assigned to neighbourhood policing functions.
Some forces are not able to make a clear distinction between ‘Neighbourhood Policing’ roles and ‘Incident (Response) Management’ roles, therefore those forces record the majority of, or all, employees under just one function. A more reliable measure is the number of officers employed in ‘Local policing’ roles, which includes both neighbourhood and response functions.
Any comparisons at force level should be made with care due to collaboration arrangements between forces for particular functions. Additionally, police functions data are often affected by re-structuring within police forces. Therefore comparisons over time for specific functions should be made with care.
Decisions on the size and composition of the police workforce are operational matters for Chief Officers working with their Police and Crime Commissioners and taking into account local priorities.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of police investigations in England and Wales have been (1) closed, and (2) written off, within 24 hours of the crime being reported to the police, for the most recent year for which figures are available.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office publishes information on crime outcomes, including the proportion of crimes that are assigned each outcome and how long it took for these outcomes to be assigned.
Information on the proportion of outcomes assigned by outcome type can be found in Table 2.2 in the data tables published alongside Crime Outcomes in England and Wales, year ending March 2017, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/crime-outcomes-in-england-and-wales-2016-to-2017
Information on how long it has taken for these outcomes to be assigned can be found in Table 5.2 in the same link. This table includes information in the proportion of outcomes that were assigned on the same day as the offence was recorded.
We expect the police to investigate all crimes, and investigations can be reopened at any point should new evidence come to light.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the number of police staff who will be working in the new online hate-crime hub in 2018.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
It is initially planned for the national online hate crime hub to be staffed by four specialist police officers and staff.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the average response time to 101 non-emergency calls for each of the past five years, broken down by each police force in England and Wales.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The handling of 101 calls is an operational matter for the police. The Home Office does not collect this information.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many police stations have closed since 2010 in each force area in England and Wales; how many additional stations were opened over that period; and of those, how many are only accessible to officers and civilian staff.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Decisions on available resources, including the number of police stations, are a matter for the directly accountable Police and Crime Commissioner and the Chief Constable of each area.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many police officers have received specialist training to investigate allegations of modern human slavery, broken down by each of the police forces in England and Wales.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Data on the number of police officers who have received specialist modern slavery training are not held centrally. Through the £8.5m grant the Government has provided to support the police modern slavery transformation programme, an accredited modern slavery training course has been developed for all frontline officers and staff. This is supplemented by a specialist investigators’ course for detectives. Both courses are being rolled out across England and Wales.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have held with police commissioners about the adequacy of available resources for those commissioners to fulfil their role and duties.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Home Office Ministers have met with a number of senior police leaders since the General Election on a wide range of issues including resources.
We have protected overall police spending and Counter-Terrorism policing in real terms since Spending Review 2015.Every Police & Crime Commissioner who maximised their local precept income in 2016-17 and 2017-18 is receiving at least the same direct resource funding in cash than they received in 2015-16.
We have a constructive and ongoing dialogue with policing about ensuring that the right powers, capabilities and resources are in place to keep t he public safe.