Police: Road Traffic Control
(asked on 15th June 2016) - View Source
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many road policing officers there have been in each year since 2010.
The number of full time equivalent police officers employed in traffic policing roles as at 31 March in each year since 2010 is provided in the table. Officers with multiple responsibilities are recorded under their primary function. Data for 31 March 2015 (the latest period for which figures are available) can also be found in the supplementary tables of the July 2015 police workforce statistics publication:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/444537/police-workforce-supptabs-mar15.ods
Number of full time equivalent police officers within traffic policing functions1,2,3 | ||||||
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| As at 31 March: | |||||
| 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
England and Wales | 5,635 | 5,316 | 4,868 | 4,675 | 4,356 | 5,220 |
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1. This table contains full-time equivalent figures that have been presented to the nearest whole number. | ||||||
2. Officers with multiple responsibilities (or designations) are recorded under their primary role or function. This may explain some variability between years. | ||||||
3. Figures have been confirmed by all police forces after collection and before publication each year. | ||||||
4. Reclassification of roles within a force can lead to fluctuations in the number of officers in a particular role. This is particularly apparent between 2014 and 2015. | ||||||
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Reclassification of roles within a force can lead to fluctuations in the number of officers in a particular role. This is particularly apparent between 2014 and 2015. Many motoring offences are non-notifiable, and so forces are not required to provide data on these to the Home Office. Therefore data on the total number of road offences is not held centrally. The Home Office publishes data on the number of fixed penalty notices issued for motoring offences in the annual police powers and procedures publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-powers-and-procedures-england-and-wales-year-ending-31-march-2015-data-tables
As HMIC has made clear, there is no simple link between police numbers and crime levels, between numbers and the visibility of police in the community, or between numbers and the quality of service provided.
Decisions on the size and composition of the police workforce are operational matters for Chief Officers working with their Police and Crime Commissioners and taking into account local priorities.