Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many new (a) PCs, (b) sergeants and (c) inspectors were appointed in South Wales Police in each of the last 24 months.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on the number of officers joining each police force in England and Wales by rank on an annual basis. Data are collected for each financial year. Data for individual months are not held centrally.

Data for the last two financial years for which figures are available are provided in the table.

These data can also be found in the ‘open data’ tables of the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletins. The latest statistics, representing the picture as at 31 March 2016, can be found here:

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

The data include those joining as standard recruits, from the Special Constabulary, as transfers from other police forces, and rejoining after previously leaving the force.

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. What matters is how officers are deployed, not how many of them there are.