Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers were employed in Leicester (a) as of 1 July 2023 and (b) in 2010.

The Home Office collects and published 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 which can be accessed here: Police workforce England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

These data are collected by PFA only, and lower levels of geography, such as towns or boroughs are not collected. The Home Office does not hold data on the number of police officers working in Leicester.

Data is collected as a snapshot as at 31 March and 30 September each year. The Home Office does not hold data on the number of police officers as at 1 July 2023.

Information on the number of police officers in Leicestershire as at 31 March each year, from 2007 to 2022, on a full-time equivalent (FTE) and headcount basis, can be found in the ‘Workforce Open Data Table’ here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1093587/open-data-table-police-workforce-270722.ods.

The latest figures, as at 30 September 2022, are available in the data tables accompanying the latest ‘Police Workforce’ bulletin which can be accessed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1130953/police-workforce-sep22-tables-300922.ods.

The next release of ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, which will cover the situation as at 31 March 2023, is scheduled for release on Wednesday 26th July.

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 terms only) in England and Wales, also broken down by PFA. Data as at 31 March 2023 are available here: Police Officer uplift statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The latest provisional data from the ‘Police Officer Uplift’ statistics shows, as at 31 March 2023, across England and Wales, there are over 149,500 police officers, the highest number of police officers on record, surpassing the previous peak of 146,030 in March 2010.

The deployment of officers is an operational matter for local Chief Constables.