Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many vacancies there are in frontline police roles, including Police Community Support Officers, as of 16 April 2024.

The Home Office does not hold data on vacancies in frontline policing roles.

The Home Office collects and publishes data annually on the function of police workers (officers, staff, designated officers (S.38) and Police Community Support Officers) as at 31 March each year in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales.

This includes information on the number and proportion of police workers in frontline policing roles. Data from 31 March 2021 to 31 March 2023, by worker type, can be found in the ‘Functions Open Data Table’ here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64ba635306f78d000d7426aa/open-data-table-police-workforce-functions-260723.ods. Data for previous years, can be found in Tables F1 to F3 of the data tables accompanying each publication.

Data for the ‘as at 31 March 2024’ publication will be published in July 2024 as part of the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin.