Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to Answer of 20 December to Question 93082, (a) why her Department does not collect data on the number of police holding cells in England and Wales; (b) whether data has been collected on the number of police holding cells in England and Wales at any time within the last ten years; (c) and whether her Department has made an assessment of the effecting on holding that data on estimating policing capability.

The Home Office does not hold information centrally on the number of police holding cells across England and Wales. Therefore, this information has not been collected at any time within the last ten years. Data collected from police forces are done so on a priority basis in line with policy and user requirements whilst balancing the burden that data reporting places on forces.

Decisions about the most effective use of resources and capability, including the number of police holding cells, are an operational matter for police and crime commissioners and chief constables, tailored to the needs of their local community.