Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which police forces in England have the (a) highest and (b) lowest ratio of police officers per capita of the areas they serve.

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.