Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, by how many and what proportion police officer posts have been reduced in each police force in England and Wales in each year since 2010; and if she will make a statement.

The Home Office does not centrally hold the information requested.

The Home Office collects and publishes statistics on the number of police officers in each Police Force Area (PFA) in England and Wales, as well as the number of officers that leave each year, in the annual ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin.

The number of officers employed in each PFA as at 31 March of each year between 2010 and 2019 is available in open data tables here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/817734/open-data-table-police-workforce.ods

The Home Office does not hold data on how many and what proportion of police officer posts have been reduced by in each police force in England and Wales in each year since 2010. The size and composition of the police workforce is a local decision for Police and Crime Commissioners, working with chief officers.

Strengthening police numbers is a priority for the government, which is providing £750 million to support forces to recruit up to 6,000 additional officers onto our streets by the end of 2020-21, the first stage in an uplift of 20,000 officers over the next three year. All officers recruited as part of the 20,000 uplift will be additional to those hired to fill existing vacancies. They are also on top of the extra officers already being recruited because of the £1 billion increase in police funding for 2019-20, which includes money from council tax and for serious violence.