Police: Employment

Question

The Home Office collects and publishes data on the size and composition of the police workforce in England and Wales on a biannual basis in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, available here: Police workforce England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The latest officer numbers were released in the publication covering the situation as at 30 September 2020. Data covering the situation as at 31 March 2020 and previous years are available in open data format here: Police workforce open data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Total officer numbers are collected and published twice each year covering the situation as at 31 March and 30 September. Data covering officer rank, however, is collected only once and covers the situation as at 31 March.

The number of police constables (full time-equivalent, FTE) in the 43 territorial England and Wales forces as at 31 March 2020 is provided in the table below:

While the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin remains the key measure of the size of the police workforce, as part of the Police Officer Uplift Programme, the Home Office also publishes a quarterly update on the number of officers (headcount) in England and Wales. Data are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-officer-uplift-statistics