Safer Neighbourhood Teams: Greater London

(asked on 18th July 2017) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Safer Neighbourhood teams operated in each ward of each London borough in (a) 2010 and (b) 2017.


Answered by
Nick Hurd Portrait
Nick Hurd
This question was answered on 26th July 2017

The Home Office collects and publishes data on the number of officers primarily employed in Neighbourhood Policing/Safer Neighbourhood roles by police force area. However, the Home Office does not hold data on the number of Safer Neighbourhood teams, only on the number of full-time equivalent officers under their primary function.

The number of full time equivalent police officers in each police force (and specifically in the Metropolitan Police), primarily employed in Neighbourhood Policing/Safer Neighbourhood roles, can be found in the data tables published alongside the annual ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletins, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales

Data as at 31 March 2017 can be found in Table F1 of the accompanying tables of the police workforce statistics, published on 20 July 2017, here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-workforce-england-and-wales-31-march-2017

Previous data were collected under a different framework, with different definitions. Therefore, data prior to 31 March 2015 are not directly comparable with later years. Although some functions may appear to be similar between the two, there are often differences in definitions, and so any attempts to compare across the two frameworks should be done with caution. Data under the old framework have been published since 2012, and can be found in the supplementary data tables of the relevant police workforce publications via the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales

Officers with multiple responsibilities or designations are recorded under their primary function. The data do not therefore provide a complete picture of all officers assigned to neighbourhood policing functions. A more reliable measure is the number of officers employed in ‘Local policing’ roles, which includes both neighbourhood and response functions. This measure is available for 2015 and 2016, but not for previous years where a different framework was used.

Any comparisons at force level should be made with care due to collaboration arrangements between forces for particular functions. Additionally, police functions data are often affected by re-structuring within police forces. Therefore comparisons over time for specific functions should be made with care.

The Home Office does not collect data at the London borough or at the ward level. Data as at 31 January, or broken down by rank, are also not available.

Decisions on duties and deployments are matters for Chief Constables and the directly accountable Police and Crime Commissioners for each local area.

The Government believes in local policing, accountable to local communities. That is why we abolished all central Government targets and put local people in charge by introducing directly elected police and crime commissioners.

Police and Crime Commissioners, the elected mayors in London and Manchester and local forces are transforming the way in which they deploy operational resources to meet local circumstances and priorities and adapt to the changing crime threat. The distinction between Neighbourhoods and response teams is no longer clear cut as forces transform the way in which they deploy operational resources and evolve roles to meet local circumstances and priorities, and adapt to the changing crime threat.

The freedom to exercise discretion and flexibility has resulted in a range of local policing approaches. At least 33 forces have introduced significant changes, including merging neighbourhoods and response functions; or, for example, in Durham where safeguarding teams have been bought together with Neighbourhoods teams.

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