Police: Wales

Question

The Home Office collects and publishes data annually on the primary function of police officers, as at 31 March each year, in the 'Police Workforce, England and Wales' statistical bulletin.

The functions framework was replaced in 2015 which means that police functions data for 2015 onwards are not directly comparable to data collected under the old framework. Any attempts to compare across the two frameworks should be done with caution.

Data on the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in frontline, frontline support and business support roles can be found in Table F6 of the data tables accompanying the publication. Table F6 includes data going back to 31 March 2010. Data for March 2010 to March 2014 has been estimated and therefore should be treated with caution.

Table 1 below shows the number of FTE police officers in frontline, frontline support and business support roles in Wales. As at 31 March 2010 it is estimated that there were 6,375 FTE police officers in frontline roles, 388 FTE police officers in frontline support roles and 270 FTE police officers in business support roles. As at 31 March 2024 there were 6,677 FTE police officers in frontline roles, 436 FTE police officers in frontline support roles and 372 FTE police officers in business support roles.

Table 1: FTE police officers in frontline, frontline support and business support roles, as at 31 March 2010 and 2024, Wales

Notes:

1. Frontline includes visible operational frontline roles and non-visible frontline roles

2. Figures for 2010 are estimated and are not directly comparable with figures for 2024