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Informants paid more than £500,000 by West Midlands Police

Informants were paid more than half a million pounds by West Midlands Police in the last three years, new figures reveal.

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In the last financial year £193,698 was paid to Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) - the highest annual payout for three years.

Between April 2014 and March 2015 the force made payments totalling £161,415. And between April 2013 and March 2014 the figure was £183,152.

The total sum paid to informants over the last three years was £538,265.

Bosses at West Midlands Police said informants were used as a last resort when all other "less intrusive methods" had already been used or considered.

The force added that no informant had evaded prosecution because of their role in assisting police operations.

Superintendent Jenny Skyrme, from West Midlands Police's Intelligence Department, said: "West Midlands Police, along with all other law enforcement agencies, is directed in the use of covert human intelligence sources (CHIS) by nationally agreed guidelines by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC).

"Ultimately, the Office of Surveillance Commissioners inspects the use of CHIS to ensure that they are appropriately authorised and used.

"The overriding perspective which is applied to all activity within with regards to CHIS is that their use is to prevent and detect crime and disorder. Given this, the authority to utilise a CHIS is constantly reviewed in the context of necessity and proportionality.

"The basis for this is when all other, less intrusive methods, have been used and/or considered and cannot be successfully used. Effectively, a view might be taken that the use of a CHIS is only taken when all other methods of conventional policing have been considered.

"No CHIS have escaped prosecution or conviction as a result of their status.

"Understandably, there is an absolute need for secrecy around the identities of CHIS or, wherever possible within legal constraints, anything which might lead to them being identified.

"Individual payments to CHIS are kept confidential due to the sensitivities around this information and the fact that inappropriate disclosure can lead to the identification of CHIS and the threat to their safety that could subsequently follow."

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