Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many counter-terrorism liaison officers were in post in each London Borough in (a) 2010 and (b) 2016.

The Home Office collects and publishes data annually on the number of officers primarily employed in Counter Terrorism/Special Branch roles as part of the Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin. This can be accessed at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales.

Data as at 31 March 2016 can be found in Table F4 of the police workforce statistics published in July 2016 at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/544954/police-workforce-tabs-jul16.ods

These data do not include all officers supporting counter-terrorism work and excludes many of those posts funded separately by the Counter-Terrorism Policing Grant and those in some national counter-terrorism functions. For reasons of national security, we do not publish the number or location of posts funded by the Counter-Terrorism Policing Grant. The published figures do not, therefore, reflect the total number of officers assigned to counter-terrorism policing.

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 frameworks, there are often differences in definitions, and so any attempts to compare across the two 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

The Home Office does not collect data on the primary functions of police officers at the level (London borough) requested, only at the police force area level.

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.