Written question asked by David Ruffley (Conservative) on Thursday, 22 July 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 9 September 2004. It was answered by Hazel Blears (Labour) on Thursday, 9 September 2004 on behalf of the Home Office.

Home Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers were employed by Suffolk police in each year since 1st April 1997. - Inc table.

Answer: Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers were employed by Suffolk police in each year since 1 April 1997. [187189] Ms Blears: On 31 May 2004 Suffolk constabulary had 1,293 police officers, 113 more than in March 1997. The table shows strength for each year since March 1997. Suffolk constabulary--strength: March 1997 to May 2004 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. As at 31 March Police numbers1 1997 1,180 1998 1,186 1999 1,190 2000 1,145 2001 1,133 2002 1,203 2003 1,253 2004 (31 May) 1,293 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1 Source for 1997 to March 2003 is the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate (RDS). May 2004 was collected separately outside of the normal data collection arrangements and has not been subject to the same validation as RDS data. Data collected by RDS for 31 March 2004 will be published shortly.

Secondary information