Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the number of police officers per capita was in (a) England and Wales, (b) London, (c) the East of England and (d) Bedfordshire in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

The Home Office collects and publishes statistics on the number of police officers employed by each police force in England and Wales on a bi-annual basis. These data are published in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletins, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-workforce-england-and-wales-31-march-2017

Table H4 of the accompanying data tables contains information on the number of police officers per capita, by police force area. Data as at 31 March 2017 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/629865/police-workforce-tabs-jul17.ods
Data for previous years can be found in the relevant year’s release by following the first link.

Figures are on a full-time equivalent basis, whereby an employee who works 70% of normal hours is counted as 0.7.