The Government has reached its recruitment target for police officers in England and Wales. The target, pledged in the Conservatives’ 2019 election manifesto, was set for March 2023 as part of the police uplift programme. But there are concerns the increased numbers are not enough to keep up with the rising population.
Here’s everything you need to know about how many police officers there are in England and Wales.
What is the police uplift programme?
In July 2019, the Government announced plans to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales by the end of March 2023. The Home Office established the Police Uplift Programme to help forces to achieve this.
In a first for policing, the Police Uplift Programme works across the Home Office, National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing, with officers and staff seconded from all three organisations.
It was said that a 20,000 net increase in officers would reduce the pressure on people to help with solving crime and improve outcomes for victims.
This substantial growth of officers has also accelerated plans to improve diversity.
How many police officers are there in the UK?
The Government has employed 20,951 more officers since 2019, which means the headcount of police officers in England and Wales (including part-time employees) is 149,572.
This is approximately 3,500 higher than in 2010, when the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats started to cut police numbers.
The recruitment target has been reached thanks to a rise in the first three months of 2023 – 4,000 extra officers – the biggest quarterly jump since the Government’s police uplift programme began.
However, there are concerns the rise has not been in line with the rise in population since 2010, and that too many experienced officers have left.
There would need to be thousands more officers to keep up with the population growth of seven per cent.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said: “We have delivered on the promise we made to the British people, which means more police on the beat preventing violence, solving burglaries and cracking down on antisocial behaviour.”
However, Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper tweeted: “The Tories are trying to take country for fools on policing... they CUT 20,000 police officers”.
It’s a reference to the reduction in police numbers of approximately 20,000 between 2010 and 2019, after government funding was cut by 20 per cent.
The Liberal Democrat’s home affairs spokesperson, Alistair Carmichael, said: “Suella Braverman’s boasts will ring hollow for communities that have seen community policing decimated under this government.”
Moreover, in the year to March 2022, the number of full-time police officers leaving the force reached a 20-year high of 8,117.
Half of those leaving went into retirement as police officers can claim their pensions in their 50s.
Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington of Essex Police said his force had received more than 900 new officers as part of the police uplift programme but he is worried some will leave because of low salaries and the rising cost of living.
Here is a list of the number of new police officers recruited in England and Wales as part of the Government’s pledge to hire 20,000 officers by March 2023, broken down by individual force.
