Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers are currently serving in Hertfordshire and Watford.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on the size of the police workforce in England and Wales, broken down by Police Force Area (PFA), on a bi-annual basis in the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin.

These data are collected by PFA only, and lower levels of geography, such as towns or boroughs are not collected. Data on the number of police officers in Hertfordshire Constabulary as at 31 March each year, from 2007 to 2022 can be found in the ‘Workforce Open Data Table’. The latest mid-year figure, as at 30 September 2022, is also available in the data tables accompanying the latest ‘Police Workforce’ bulletin.

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 publishes a quarterly update on the number of police officers (headcount terms only) in England and Wales, also broken down by PFA. Lower levels of geography, such as towns or boroughs are not collected. Data as at 31 March 2023 are available here: Police Officer Uplift, quarterly update to March 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The latest data from the ‘Police Officer Uplift’ statistics shows, as at 31 March 2023, there were 2,415 police officers (headcount) in Hertfordshire Constabulary. This is the highest number of police officers on record in Hertfordshire Constabulary surpassing the previous peak of 2,236 officers as at 31 March 2007.