Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers by rank were in post on 1 January 2017 in England and Wales.

The Home Office collects and publishes statistics on the number of police officers employed by each police force in England and Wales on a bi-annual basis. These data are published in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletins, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-workforce-england-and-wales-31-march-2017

Table H3 in the data tables accompanying this release show the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers, broken down by rank, employed in England and Wales as at 31 March each year.

The Home Office does not hold information on the number of officers in post as at 1 January.