National statistics

Police officer uplift, final position as at March 2023

Published 26 July 2023

Applies to England and Wales

Frequency of release: Quarterly

Forthcoming releases: Home Office statistics release calendar

Home Office responsible statistician: Jodie Hargreaves

Press enquiries: 0300 123 3535

Public enquiries: policingstatistics@homeoffice.gov.uk

Privacy information notice

Foreword

Throughout the duration of the Police Officer Uplift recruitment campaign, data have been published on a quarterly basis in January, April, July and October, each year. Each bulletin provided provisional data for the most recent quarter, and finalised data were published in the next quarter. The provisional releases have allowed for the timely reporting of police officer uplift figures as each release covered data up to the end of the previous month (that is, the April release covered data up to 31 March). The finalised data were then published in the next quarter, allowing forces time to complete additional data quality checks, which may have resulted in small revisions. This release therefore updates the provisional “as at 31 March” figures published in April 2023 to finalised data.

The Home Office first reported whether the 20,000 additional officers had provisionally been met as at 31 March 2023 in the April 2023 release of this publication series and informed users it was the penultimate release.

Following revisions from 7 forces to figures up to March 2023 (equating to a difference of -6 to the total headcount in England and Wales), this publication reports the final uplift position as at 31 March 2023 and is the final publication in this statistical series. Further details on revisions received since the publication of provisional data in the April 2023 release can be found in section 1.3.

This publication is released alongside the biannual Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin which also covers data as at 31 March 2023. Following this release this statistical series on the police officer uplift will be retired, and reporting on the size and composition of the police workforce will continue on a biannual basis in the Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin which reports on the position as at 31 March, released in July each year, and as at 30 September, released in January each year. Any future revisions to the figures as at 31 March 2023 will be provided in the biannual release. No further updates will be made to this series.

Introduction

Following the receipt of finalised data from police forces, including revisions to previously published data from 7 forces, this release provides the final statistics on the recruitment of an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales by March 2023. While revisions do not affect the majority of data in this edition, the full publication is provided below for completeness.

149,566 officers final headcount as at 31 March 2023, England and Wales

+20,947 (of +20,000 additional officers by March 2023) final uplift figure as at 31 March 2023, England and Wales

Key findings

• following the publication of provisional “as at 31 March” data in April 2023, revisions have been received from 7 forces; the outcome of these revisions mean that the total headcount in England and Wales published in the April 2023 release have been revised down by 6

• in this finalised bulletin all figures have been updated to give a final headcount and uplift position for 31 March 2023

• there were 149,566 officers in the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales as at 31 March 2023; this has been revised from 149,572 (-6) following revisions from 7 forces. Further details are available in Section 1.3

• this updates the increase on the adjusted baseline of 128,433 to 21,133 officers

Of these additional officers:

• 20,947 have been recruited from funding for the Police Uplift Programme and contributed towards the target of 20,000 by March 2023 (16% above the baseline)

• a further 186 additional officers have been recruited through other funding streams (such as from local council tax precept)

• the revisions do not affect the number of forces who met their uplift allocation and, as previously published, forces across England and Wales have met the total uplift allocation of 20,000 additional officers by March 2023

• of the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, and as previously published, 42 have met or exceeded their force’s allocation of additional officers. The Metropolitan Police Service did not meet its total uplift allocation. Further details are available in Section 3.2

• while the revisions mean the previously published headcount in England and Wales of 149,572 has been updated to 149,566, this remains the highest number of police officers on record since comparable records began (in the year ending March 2003)

• the headcount as at 31 March 2023 is 3,536 (2.4%) greater than the previous peak of 146,030 officers in post in England and Wales as at 31 March 2010

• the allocation of 725 additional officers to be deployed to Regional and Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) by March 2023 has been met

• since April 2020, more than 4 in 10 new recruits (43.2%) were female and 11.4% (who stated their ethnicity) identified as ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities)

• 274,951 applications to become a police officer have been received since October 2019

Figure 1 shows, by month, a steady increase in the number of police officers recruited towards the target of 20,000 by March 2023.

Figure 1: Officers recruited into uplift

Figure 1 shows over the quarter January to March 2023, there was a net increase of 4,210 uplift officers compared with December 2022. This is the largest quarter-on-quarter increase in the duration of the programme. In the quarter of January to March 2023, the total number of officers recruited towards uplift increased each month. The majority of the increase over the quarter was seen in the month of March, where the headcount of officers recruited towards the uplift increased by 2,404 compared with February 2023. This is the largest month-on-month increase during the programme. Officer recruitment levels have varied by month throughout the programme, reflecting the different recruitment cycles of individual forces as well as seasonal patterns.

1. Introduction

1.1 Introduction

The current government made a manifesto commitment to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales over a 3-year period by 31 March 2023. Throughout the duration of the recruitment campaign this quarterly release has provided information on the recruitment of these additional officers and data have been provided for each of the 43 territorial police force in England and Wales on a monthly basis.

This release also contains information on the demographics of police officers in post as at 31 March 2023 in England and Wales, and of new recruits since April 2020. Following improvements to police force Human Resource (HR) systems to collect a broader range of information on protected characteristics many officers are yet to update their HR records and, therefore data are not currently complete. As such the diversity section of this release only focuses on the protected characteristics of sex, ethnicity and age, where the data are more complete and reliable. For more information on these changes to force HR systems see Section 3.3.

In addition, since July 2021, statistics are included in Annex A of this release have provided information on the proportion of officers broken down by sexual orientation and disability status.

This publication has been designated as National Statistics^{[footnote 1]} by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) meaning the production of these statistics complies with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

1.2 Data collection and publication

Home Office statisticians have worked closely with police colleagues working on the Police Uplift Programme to collect and quality assure data for this publication. Data have been sourced from police forces’ HR systems and collected on a monthly basis from each of the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales.

Throughout the duration of the Police Officer Uplift recruitment campaign, data have been published on a quarterly basis in January, April, July and October, each year. Each bulletin has provided provisional data for the most recent quarter, and finalised data were published in the next quarter. This release therefore finalises the “as at 31 March” figures, previously published as ‘provisional’ data in April 2023.

The Home Office first reported whether the 20,000 additional officers had provisionally been recruited as at 31 March 2023 in the April 2023 release of this publication series and informed users it was the penultimate release. Following revisions from 7 forces to figures up to March 2023 (equating a difference of -6 to the total headcount in England and Wales), this publication reports the final position as at 31 March 2023 and is the final publication in this statistical series. Further detail on revisions received since the publication of provisional data in April 2023 can be found in Section 1.3.

This publication is released alongside the biannual Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin which also covers data as at 31 March 2023. Following this release this statistical series on the police officer uplift will be retired, and reporting on the size and composition of the police workforce will continue on a biannual basis in the Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin which reports on the position as at 31 March, released in July each year, and as at 30 September, released in January each year. Any future revisions to the figures as at 31 March 2023 will be provided in the biannual release. No further updates will be made to this series.

1.3 Revisions

In previous editions of this statistical series, data for the most recent quarter were provisional and subject to change in future releases when they would be finalised. Furthermore, in preparation for the publication of the biannual Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin, analysts ran a reconciliation exercise across the 2 datasets.

Table 1.1 shows revisions made to the headcount of police officers in post, since the penultimate quarterly release published in April 2023. The revisions in Table 1.1 are the result of a biannual reconciliation exercise to quality assure data provided through the monthly police uplift returns and the annual police workforce data collection, which feeds into the Police workforce, England and Wales statistical release.

As this publication reports the final uplift position as at 31 March 2023, any additional revisions will be incorporated into the biannual Police workforce, England and Wales statistical release.

Table 1.1: Summary of officers in post (headcount) revisions

Month	Provisional headcount of officers in post published in ‘quarter to March 2023’ bulletin released in April 2023	Updated headcount	Difference (headcount)
Feb-23	147,464	147,463	-1
Mar-23	149,572	149,566	-6

The revisions outlined in Table 1.1 to the headcount of police officers means the previously published figure of additional officers recruited from funding for the Police Uplift Programme (20,951) has been revised down by 4 to 20,947, and additional officers recruited through other funding streams (such as from local council tax precept) has been revised down by 2 (from 188 to 186). As outlined in Section 2.3, throughout this recruitment campaign and within each financial year, forces may have chosen to recruit additional officers through local funds (such as council tax precept). Where this is the case, any additional officers counting towards uplift are recruited first, and then further additional recruits count towards locally funded officers.

1.4 Additional data sources

The data in this release can be found in the Police officer uplift, England and Wales, March 2023 data tables. In addition to these data tables, information on the number of police officers (headcount) and new joiners by ethnicity, sex and age group for each month since April 2020 are published in an open data format. Previous editions in this series are available on the ‘Police officer uplift statistics’ statistical collection page.

National Statistics on the police workforce, including full-time equivalent (FTE) figures and information on other worker types, are published biannually in the Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin. Information on how the presentation of data differs between the 2 publications can be found in Annex B of this publication.

The Home Office launched the ‘Police Uplift Programme New Recruits Onboarding Survey’ to improve understanding of the retention of newly recruited police officers and published the Police Uplift Programme New Recruits Onboarding Survey 2021 Report in August 2022 and Police Uplift Programme New Recruits Onboarding Survey 2022 Report in February 2023.

1.5 National Statistics status

This publication was designated as National Statistics^{[footnote 2]} by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) in October 2022. This means the production of these statistics complies with the Code of Practice for Statistics. For further details about the OSR’s recommendations and actions taken by the Home Office see the Annex accompanying the National Statistics designation letter.

2. Allocations and Baseline

2.1 Baseline

The first release in this statistical series, published on 30 April 2020, set out the methodology for calculating a starting figure (or baseline) against which the recruitment of an additional 20,000 officers would be measured.

While the campaign to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales started in September 2019, the police workforce statistics as at 30 September 2019 (published on 30 January 2020) were not used as the initial baseline. This was because many forces already had plans to increase their workforce establishment during the financial year ending 31 March 2020 following recruitment funded by planned local council tax precept increases.

A full explanation of this decision, alongside further details on the baseline methodology, and in-year adjustments made since, can be found in the statistical note ‘Plans for statistical reporting on progress with the recruitment of an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales’, and previous versions of this statistical series.

Throughout the duration of the recruitment campaign small adjustments to the baseline figure were made as externally funded posts move from one organisation to another as a part of organisational re-structuring (such as posts transferring out of a territorial force to the National Crime Agency).

The baseline figure for which recruitment of an additional 20,000 officers is measured is 128,433.

Detailed figures for each Police Force Area, including in-year adjustments, can be found in Table B1 of the accompanying data tables.

2.2 Allocations

Funding to support the initial allocation of 6,000 additional officers was given to police forces for recruitment in the year ending 31 March 2021, and an allocation (and associated funding) for a further 6,000 was announced for the year ending 31 March 2022. The second wave of the programme included an allocation of 270 officers specifically to tackle Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) and an allocation of 30 officers to City of London Police specifically to uplift officers tackling fraud nationally (in addition to the territorial policing uplift allocation City of London Police received).

An allocation (and associated funding) for the final 8,000 additional officers (to bring the total to 20,000) was given to police forces for recruitment in the year ending 31 March 2023. This allocation of 8,000 officers included 425 officers to SOC (to bring the total number of officers specifically allocated to SOC, including fraud, to 725). As in year 2 of the programme, funding for tackling SOC was shared across the network of Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) hosted within specific territorial forces. The share of SOC officers are included in the total force allocations and monitored regionally in the ROCUs.

A proportional split of the total funding to support the police uplift was made across forces based on the police funding formula and this was used to allocate the 20,000 additional police officers across police forces. Forces that receive a larger proportion of funding through the police funding formula were therefore allocated a larger number of uplift officers to recruit. Outside of this methodology, City of London Police were provided an additional 30 officers, as mentioned above, to strengthen the national response to fraud. Information on the allocations given to individual police forces can be found in Table B1.

2.3 What counts as uplift?

Each police force had a baseline figure (to represent their position at the start of the programme), and an allocation for recruitment by March 2023 (Table B1). Police forces were required to backfill any leavers throughout the duration of the campaign, as well as recruiting the additional officers allocated to them through the uplift funding before the recruitment goals could be met. Detailed information on police officer leavers are published in the Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin.

Additional recruitment through local funds

Forces may have also recruited additional officers through local funds (such as council tax precept). Where this is the case, and within each financial year, additional officers counting towards uplift were recruited first, and then further additional recruits counted towards locally funded officers. Table U3 contains information on locally funded officers.

3. Final police officer uplift to 31 March 2023

3.1 Introduction

Following the publication of provisional “as at 31 March” data in April 2023, revisions have been received from 7 forces. The revisions mean that the figures published in the April 2023 release, for total police officer headcount and the total increase against the adjusted baseline in England and Wales, have been revised down by 6. The revisions do not affect the number of forces who met their uplift allocation or the achievement of 20,000 additional officers by March 2023.

As at 31 March 2023, final data shows that there were 149,566 officers in the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales (down 6 in total from the provisional figure of 149,572 published in April 2023 following revisions received from 7 forces). This is an increase of 21,133 officers against the adjusted baseline (128,433). Of these additional officers, 20,947 can be attributed to the uplift programme (a 16% increase on the adjusted baseline), and the remaining 186 through local funding (see Section 2.2 for further details).

Allocations to forces include a combined total of 725 officers specifically to tackle Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) to be achieved by the end of the 3-year programme (March 2023). This includes 30 officers to City of London Police specifically to strengthen the national response to fraud. Funding for tackling SOC is shared across the network of Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs). ROCUs require more experienced police officers and therefore forces will release existing police officers to ROCUs and replace them with the additional officers recruited via the Police Uplift Programme to ensure overall workforce growth. The allocation of 725 additional officers deployed to ROCUs by March 2023 has been met.

Collection of data for the monitoring of uplift commenced in October 2019. Figure 3.1 shows how officer numbers have steadily increased every quarter, to 149,566 as at 31 March 2023 (up from 145,642 as at 31 December 2022). The final police officer headcount as at 31 March 2023 in England and Wales (149,566 officers), remains the highest number of police officers on record since comparable records began in the year ending March 2003. The current headcount is 3,536 (2.4%) greater than the previous peak of 146,030 officers in post as at 31 March 2010.

Figure 3.1 shows officer numbers have increased in 36 of the 42 months since September 2019, with the exceptions being December 2020, 2021 and 2022; April 2021 and 2022; and July 2022 where total officer numbers dipped slightly compared to the previous month. This is due to more leavers than joiners in the months at the end of the calendar year and start of the financial year, and in July 2022. Officer recruitment levels have varied by month throughout the programme, reflecting the different recruitment cycles of individual forces as well as seasonal patterns.

Figure 3.1: Number of police officers¹, 31 March 2019 to 31 March 2023, England and Wales

Source: Home Office, Table U1

3.2 Officers counting towards uplift

Recruitment under funds raised through council tax precept in each year of the programme (as well as recruitment funded by other means) are taken into account when calculating the number of uplift officers. This ensures officers funded through means other than the uplift programme are not counted towards the 20,000 target.

Table 3.1 shows the number of officers in England and Wales at the end of every month for which programme data have been collected. The table also shows how this figure relates to the adjusted baseline, and how many additional officers are attributed to the uplift programme.

Table 3.1: Headcount and uplift position, by month, England and Wales

Month	Headcount as at the end of the month	Adjusted baseline	Officers counting towards uplift recruitment	Additional officers under precept	Total change from adjusted baseline
Oct-19	127,562	128,434	-872	-	-872
Nov-19	128,351	128,434	-83	-	-83
Dec-19	128,596	128,434	+162	-	+162
Jan-20	129,305	128,434	+871	-	+871
Feb-20	129,913	128,434	+1,479	-	+1,479
Mar-20	131,576	128,434	+3,142	-	+3,142
Apr-20	131,858	128,434	+3,424	-	+3,424
May-20	132,200	128,434	+3,631	+135	+3,766
Jun-20	133,131	128,434	+4,379	+318	+4,697
Jul-20	134,197	128,434	+5,201	+562	+5,763
Aug-20	134,425	128,434	+5,333	+658	+5,991
Sep-20	134,879	128,434	+5,867	+578	+6,445
Oct-20	135,215	128,434	+6,305	+476	+6,781
Nov-20	135,623	128,434	+6,877	+312	+7,189
Dec-20	135,247	128,434	+6,623	+190	+6,813
Jan-21	136,206	128,434	+7,439	+333	+7,772
Feb-21	136,676	128,434	+7,823	+419	+8,242
Mar-21	137,690	128,434	+8,772	+484	+9,256
Apr-21	137,614	128,434	+8,854	+326	+9,180
May-21	137,989	128,434	+9,229	+326	+9,555
Jun-21	138,573	128,434	+9,823	+316	+10,139
Jul-21	138,759	128,434	+9,979	+346	+10,325
Aug-21	139,318	128,434	+10,526	+358	+10,884
Sep-21	139,920	128,434	+11,076	+410	+11,486
Oct-21	140,125	128,434	+11,277	+414	+11,691
Nov-21	140,351	128,434	+11,446	+471	+11,917
Dec-21	139,938	128,434	+11,058	+446	+11,504
Jan-22	140,700	128,453	+11,787	+460	+12,247
Feb-22	140,963	128,453	+12,035	+475	+12,510
Mar-22	142,505	128,453	+13,566	+486	+14,052
Apr-22	141,844	128,453	+12,905	+486	+13,391
May-22	142,177	128,453	+13,231	+493	+13,724
Jun-22	142,747	128,453	+13,779	+515	+14,294
Jul-22	142,690	128,453	+13,717	+520	+14,237
Aug-22	142,972	128,453	+13,991	+528	+14,519
Sep-22	144,346	128,453	+15,333	+560	+15,893
Oct-22	145,482	128,433	+16,563	+486	+17,049
Nov-22	145,706	128,433	+16,787	+486	+17,273
Dec-22	145,642	128,433	+16,737	+472	+17,209
Jan-23	146,944	128,433	+18,024	+487	+18,511
Feb-23	147,463	128,433	+18,543	+487	+19,030
Mar-23	149,566	128,433	+20,947	+186	+21,133

Source: Home Office, Table U1, Table U2, Table U3

Notes:

1. ’-‘ denotes nil.

The key milestones in the 3-year programme were as at 31 March 2021 (additional 6,000 officers), 31 March 2022 (a total of 12,000 additional officers), and 31 March 2023 (20,000 additional officers in total). As at 31 March 2023, forces exceeded the 20,000 additional officer target by 947 nationally across England and Wales; 20,947 additional police officers as at 31 March 2023 have been recruited from funding for the Police Uplift Programme. This is an increase of 4,210 additional officers on the number recorded at the end of the quarter to December 2022 (16,737).

Nationally forces have met the total uplift allocation to recruit 20,000 additional officers in England and Wales by March 2023, and 42 of the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales met or exceeded their force’s allocation of additional officers. One force, the Metropolitan Police Service, did not meet its total uplift allocation. The force missed its allocation of 4,557 additional officers, by 1,089 (23.9%).

Detailed figures on the uplift position of each Police Force Area, can be found in Table U2 of the accompanying data tables.

3.3 Officers per population

The rate of police officers per 100,000 head of population (on a headcount basis) at the start of the recruitment campaign was 216 officers per population in England and Wales^{[footnote 3]}. In general, the larger metropolitan police forces had a higher rate of police officers per 100,000 head of population. The Metropolitan Police Service had the highest rate (357 officers per 100,000 population) followed by Merseyside (241 officers per 100,000 population).

The rate of police officers per 100,000 head of population, at the end of the Police Uplift Programme, as at 31 March 2023, was 251 officers per population in England and Wales^{[footnote 4]}. In general, the larger metropolitan police forces continue to have a higher rate of police officers per 100,000 head of population, with the Metropolitan Police Service having the highest rate (403 officers per 100,000 population) followed by Merseyside (293 officer per 100,000 population).

The rate for each Police Force Area can be found in Table U1 of the accompanying data tables.

3.4 All new recruits

Not all new recruits are counted as progress towards uplift, since forces must maintain their baseline by recruiting to backfill any leavers. The number of new recruits throughout the programme therefore exceeds the number of officers counting towards uplift, as some of these were recruited to backfill leavers, or to achieve other recruitment commitments.

Figure 3.2 shows the total number of new recruits per month since data collection began in November 2019 (robust data for all forces were not available prior to that). These figures include all new recruits, and comprise a combination of officers recruited under precept funding, those recruited against uplift, as well as others recruited to backfill any leavers. However, these figures exclude those returning to the police service after a period of absence and do not include transfers between forces and should not be used to deduce the actual number of leavers. Detailed information on police officer leavers are published in the biannual Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin.

Following the publication of provisional “as at 31 March” data in April 2023, revisions have been received from 7 forces. These revisions mean that the figure published in the April 2023 release for new recruits in England and Wales have been revised down by one. In this finalised bulletin all figures have been updated to give a final headcount of new recruits throughout the duration of the programme.

Figure 3.2 shows, since November 2019, there have been 46,504 new recruits to the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, with 5,770 of these joining in the last quarter of the programme (January to March 2023). In March 2023 there were 2,667 new recruits, the highest number of new recruits in a calendar month since the programme began. Throughout the duration of the recruitment campaign, officer recruitment levels have varied by month reflecting the different recruitment cycles of individual forces as well as seasonal patterns. In the months of April and December levels of recruitment were lower, reflecting a seasonal trend of fewer joiners at the start of the financial year and at the end of the calendar year (coinciding with the Christmas period). Data for individual police forces can be found in the data tables that accompany this publication.

Figure 3.2: Number of police officer recruits, by month, England and Wales

Source: Home Office, Table U4

Notes:

1. These data do not include those returning to the Police Service after a period of absence, nor do they include transfers.

3.5 Diversity

Information on protected characteristics

As part of the initiative to improve data on the police workforce, the Home Office, the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing have been collaborating in developing National Standards for Workforce Data. These data standards draw on existing harmonised standards set out by the Government Statistical Service and aim to bring more standardisation within policing for the collection of data on protected characteristics (and some other demographic information). The variables currently covered by the Standards are: Ethnicity, Age, Religion or Belief, Disability, Sexual Orientation, Gender, Sex, and Gender Reassignment.

Information on protected characteristics is self-reported by officers on police force HR systems. Recent changes to police force HR systems to align with the new data standards have allowed all staff the opportunity to review existing records and declare further information on protected characteristics. As many officers are yet to update their HR records, data against some of the protected characteristics are not currently complete.

As at 31 March 2023, all officers had recorded information on their sex and age, and there was a relatively high completion rate for information on ethnicity (97.2% complete as at 31 March 2023). As such the diversity section of this release focuses on the protected characteristics of sex, ethnicity and age only, where the data were more complete and reliable. Annex A of this release includes information on the proportion of officers broken down by sexual orientation and disability status.

The Home Office and NPCC continue to work with police forces to encourage all staff to enter this information and improve the quality of data collected on protected characteristics. We therefore expect to see increases in the proportion of officers where their protected characteristics are known, as HR records are updated. Whilst this is the final publication in this statistical series, reporting on the size and composition of the police workforce will continue on a biannual basis in the Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin. We expect to see improvements to the quality and completeness of protected characteristics in future Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletins.

Information on sex and gender

Following the expansion of the data collection to align with the new data standards, the Home Office and NPCC became aware that forces were inconsistent in the reporting of gender data, with most forces instead reporting on sex. The NPCC continues to work closely with forces to ensure greater consistency in the reporting of sex and gender.

Data on the legal sex and gender of all officers in post at the end of each quarter, and of new recruits have been collected since 1 April 2020. Data on sex are collected under 2 categories (‘male’ and ‘female’). As at 31 March 2023, the sex of all officers in post has been recorded on police force HR systems. While this chapter focusses on the legal sex of officers only (as this data is most complete), data on gender are available in the data tables, but are less well complete (48.5% complete as at 31 March 2023).

Data on the legal sex of new recruits and officers in post prior to April 2020 are published annually in the [Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin].

Information on ethnicity

Until May 2021, data on ethnicity were collected aggregated to 5 broader categories (White, Black, Asian, Mixed, Other and ‘prefer not to say’) aligning with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Census 2011 classification. Since May 2021 (when the new data standards were implemented), data on ethnicity have been collected at the more detailed level, using the ONS Census 2011 18+1 ethnic groups. Furthermore, since December 2022, data on ethnicity has been collected aligning to the ONS Census 2021 19+1 ethnic groups. For officers in post as at 31 March 2023, these data are available in Table U6b.

Data on the ethnicity of all officers in post at the end of each quarter, and of new recruits have been collected since 1 April 2020. Relatively high proportions of officers in post had recorded their ethnicity on police force HR systems (97.2% as at 31 March 2023).

Data on the ethnicity of new recruits and officers in post prior to April 2020 are published annually in the Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin.

Census data

This publication compares to the ONS 2021 Census population estimates following the release of these data in November 2022. The ONS 2011 Census estimated 14.0% of the general population in England and Wales identified as ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities). This proportion has increased, the ONS 2021 Census estimates 18.3% of the population identify as ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities), an increase of 4.3 percentage points compared to 2011.

Information on age

Following improvements to the completeness of the data, the proportions of both total officers and new joiners since 1 April 2020 have been broken down by age group in the diversity section of these statistics. As at 31 March 2023, all officers had recorded their age on police force HR systems.

Data on the age of police staff and a historic time series of police officers by age group are also published annually in the Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin.

Diversity of those in post as at 31 March 2023, England and Wales

Following the publication of provisional “as at 31 March” data in April 2023, revisions have been received from 7 forces. These revisions means that the headcount published in the April 2023 release have been revised down by 6 officers in England and Wales. In this finalised bulletin all figures have been updated to give a final headcount for 31 March 2023. The commentary in this bulletin focuses on the number of female and ethnic minority officers in post. The number of female officers in post has been revised down by 3, and the number of officers that identify as an ethnic minority have also been revised down by one. The accompanying data tables reflect all revisions.

As at 31 March 2023, in England and Wales there were 53,080 female officers in post, accounting for 35.5% of officers, an increase on 35.1% as at 31 December 2022. This is the highest number and proportion of female officers in post since comparable records began. By comparison, as at 31 March 2019 (before the programme began) 31.7% of officers were female.

As at 31 March 2023, 12,086 officers identified as ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities) in England and Wales, representing 8.3% of those who stated their ethnicity. This is the highest number and proportion of ethnic minority officers in post since comparable records began. By comparison, as at 31 March 2019 (before the programme began) 6.9% of officers who stated their ethnicity identified as ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities).

Looking across each individual ethnic group, of all officers in England and Wales who stated an ethnicity: 3.8% identified as Asian, 1.3% as Black, 2.6% as Mixed and 0.7% as ‘Other’. These rates were all lower than the proportion seen in the general population (based on the 2021 ONS Census), as shown in table 3.2.

Table 3.2: Number of officers in post (headcount) as at 31 March 2023, by ethnicity, England and Wales

Ethnic group	Number of officers (headcount)	Percentage (%) of all officers (excluding where ethnicity was not stated)	Percentage (%) of local population based on the 2021 Census population estimates
White	133,218	91.7	81.7
Black	1,900	1.3	4.0
Asian	5,472	3.8	9.3
Mixed	3,737	2.6	2.9
Other	977	0.7	2.1
Prefer not to say	2,583	-	-
Unknown	1,679	-	-

Source: Home Office, Table U6a, ONS 2021 Census

In general, the larger metropolitan police forces with the most ethnically diverse local populations had a higher proportion of officers identifying as ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities). For example, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) had the highest proportion of officers in ethnic minority groups (excluding white minorities), with 17.2% as such, an improvement on last quarter (0.2 percentage point). This was followed by West Midlands Police (13.9%), who saw a 0.1 percentage point increase when compared with the previous quarter, and Bedfordshire Police (10.8%) who saw a 0.5 percentage point improvement on the last quarter. However, these proportions still remained below the proportion of residents in each of these areas who identified as belonging to one of these ethnic groups (46.3%, 38.6% and 28.0% respectively) at the time of the 2021 Census.

The MPS and West Midlands Police also appeared amongst the 3 forces with the highest proportion of Black, Asian or Mixed officers when considering each ethnicity group individually. MPS had the highest proportion of officers identifying as Black (3.7%) and Mixed (4.3%). West Midlands meanwhile recorded the highest proportion of officers identifying as Asian (8.9%), with MPS recording the second highest (7.3%). However, these proportions were all below the representation of those ethnic groups in their respective resident populations. The 2021 census estimates show that in the MPS, 13.5% of the local population identified as Black, 20.7% as Asian and 5.7% as Mixed. Meanwhile, 22.9% of the local population in the West Midlands police force area identified as Asian.

North Wales Police and Cumbria Police had the smallest proportion (1.2% and 1.5% respectively) of officers identifying as ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities), reflecting the relatively small numbers of these groups’ resident in those areas according to the 2021 Census (3.2% and 2.4% respectively).

Figure 3.3 shows that as at 31 March 2023, over half (59%) of all police officers were aged 40 or under, with 13% of all officers aged 25 and under. Meanwhile, 39% of all officers were between aged 41 and 55 with the remaining 2% aged over 55.

Figure 3.3: Number and proportion of police officers, by age group, as at 31 March 2019 and 31 March 2023, England and Wales

Source: Home Office, Table U9

By comparison, as at 31 March 2019 (before the programme began) 54% of all police officers were aged 40 or under, with 7% of all officers aged 25 and under. However, over this period (between March 2019 and March 2023), officer numbers have increased across all 4 age groups.

Data for individual forces can be found in Tables U5-U10 of the accompanying data tables and the number of officers in post by protected characteristic for each month since April 2020 can be found in the accompanying open data table. Similar data as at 31 March each year are published annually in the Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin.

Diversity of new recruits since April 2020

Following the publication of provisional “as at 31 March” data in April 2023, revisions have been received from 7 forces. These revisions mean that the figures published in the April 2023 release for the total number of new recruits in England and Wales has been revised down by one. The commentary in this bulletin focuses on the number of female and ethnic minority officer new recruits. Following reasons, the number of female new recruits has been revised down by one. The number of new recruits that identified as an ethnic minority has not changed. In this finalised bulletin all figures have been updated to give a final headcount of new recruits throughout the duration of the programme and the accompanying data tables reflect all revisions.

Since April 2020 there has been a total of 40,207 new recruits to police forces in England and Wales. Of these, 17,356 were female, making up 43.2% of all new recruits where sex is known. Whilst this remains below their representation in the general population (where females made up 51% of residents in England and Wales) this was a notable increase on levels seen in previous years. The annual workforce statistics for the financial year ending 31 March 2020 (towards the beginning of the police uplift programme) showed 36.9% of new police joiners were female (excluding transfers and re-joiners).

With regard to ethnicity, 4,425 new recruits identified as ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities), equating to 11.4%. Breaking this down further 1.6% of new recruits identified as belonging to a Black ethnic group, 5.4% to the Asian ethnic group, 3.4% identified as a Mixed ethnicity, and 0.9% identified as belonging to Other ethnic group. This proportion of 11.4% remained below the representation of such ethnic groups in the general population (18.3% according to ONS 2021 Census estimates) but an improvement on the 10.3% (excluding transfers and re-joiners) that we reported in the annual workforce statistics for the financial year ending 31 March 2020 (during the early stages of the uplift programme).

Figure 3.4 shows that, of new recruits that self-defined their ethnicity as an ethnic minority (excluding white minorities), 47.6% identified as Asian, 30.2% as Mixed, 14.3% as Black and the remaining 7.9% as Other. By comparison, the ONS 2021 Census showed that of those who identified as an ethnic minority (excluding white minorities) 50.6% identified as Asian, 15.8% as Mixed, 22.1% as Black and 11.5% as Other.

Figure 3.4: Composition of new recruits identifying as ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities), by ethnic group, April 2020 to March 2023, England and Wales

Source: Home Office, Table U8

Since April 2020, 95.2% of all new police officer recruits were aged 40 or under (and 56.8% of new recruits were under 26). Only 0.1% of new recruits were over the age of 55.

Data for individual forces can be found in Tables U5-U10 of the accompanying data tables and the number of new recruits by protected characteristic and by month started within force since April 2020 can be found in the accompanying new recruits open data table. Similar data as at 31 March each year are published annually in the Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin.

4. Glossary

Baseline: The starting figure against which adjustments will be made (see adjusted baseline). The baseline accounts for people in post at the start of the recruitment drive, and also accounts for any recruitment planned prior to the uplift announcement.

Adjusted baseline: The adjusted baseline is the figure used to track the recruitment of an additional 20,000 officers. The adjusted baseline is the original baseline with in-year adjustments then made to account for externally funded posts that have moved since the calculation of the original baseline.

Management information: Data provided by police forces from their administrative data sources. These are provisional figures only and are not subject to the same assurance processes as National Statistics.

National Statistics: A status designated to statistics by The Office for Statistics Regulation. National Statistics meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, impartiality, quality and public value, and are fully compliant with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

New recruit: A candidate who is joining the Police Service for the first time. This does not include those returning after a period of absence, nor does it include transfers or those rejoining.

NPCC: National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC). The NPCC brings forces in the UK together to help policing coordinate operations, reform, improve and provide value for money.

Police workforce, England and Wales: These are the established statistics on the police workforce, which have been designated as National Statistics. This release contains statistics on the numbers of police officers, police staff, Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), designated officers, special constables and Police Support Volunteers (PSVs) in post on 31 March and 30 September each year (published in July and January respectively).

Precept: Police funding that is raised via local council tax.

Regional Organised Crime Unit: Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) are regional collaborations of police forces that bring together specialist policing capabilities to tackle the threat from Serious and Organised Crime (SOC).

Serious and Organised Crime: Serious and organised crime is defined in the 2018 Serious and Organised Crime Strategy as individuals planning, coordinating and committing serious offences, whether individually, in groups and or as part of transnational networks. It affects more UK citizens, more often, than any other national security threat and leads to more deaths in the UK each year than all other national security threats combined. It has a corrosive impact on our public services, communities, reputation and way of life.

Uplift: The term used to describe officers who count towards the Government’s commitment to recruit an additional 20,000 officers by March 2023. Officers are counted as uplift once the baseline for the respective police force has been exceeded.

Annex A: Additional analysis of police officer numbers by protected characteristics

Throughout the uplift programme, the NPCC has collected management information from police forces in England and Wales about new and existing officers to support decision making and for use in these statistics. This has included information on the sex and gender, ethnicity and age of police officers and new recruits.

As part of the initiative to improve data on the police workforce, a number of changes have recently been made to the NPCC data collection template, particularly around the collection of data on protected characteristics.

The Home Office, the NPCC and the College of Policing have been collaborating in developing National Standards for Workforce Data. These data standards draw on existing harmonised standards set out by the Government Statistical Service and aim to bring more standardisation within policing for the collection of data on protected characteristics (and some other demographic information). The variables currently covered by the Standards are: Ethnicity, Age, Religion or Belief, Disability, Sexual orientation, Gender, Sex, and Gender Reassignment. A full breakdown of the standards can be found in the user guide.

Information on their protected characteristics is self-reported by officers on police force HR systems. Recent changes to police force HR systems to align with the new data standards have allowed all staff the opportunity to review existing records and declare further information on protected characteristics. However, many officers are yet to update their HR records and, as such, data are not currently complete.

This annex includes information on the proportion of officers broken down by sexual orientation and disability status. Whilst relatively high proportions of officers had not recorded, or preferred not to declare, their sexual orientation and disability status (40.3% and 42.1% respectively as at 31 March 2023), the NPCC is working with police forces to encourage all staff to enter this information. We therefore expect to see increases in the proportion of officers who have recorded their sexual orientation and disability status, which will be available in future Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletins.

As described in the main police uplift statistics there were a total of 149,566 officers in post as at 31 March 2023. The below tables show proportions of these officers, where known, by sexual orientation (Table A1) and disability status (Table A2) as well as the proportion of all officers where this information is currently unknown. Given the incomplete nature of this dataset, any interpretation of data in this annex should be made with caution.

Table A1 Police officers by sexual orientation, England and Wales, as at 31 March 2023

	Percentage (%) of all officers (headcount)
Known	59.7%
of which: Heterosexual/Straight	92.0%
of which: Bisexual	3.0%
of which: Gay/Lesbian	4.8%
of which: Prefer to self-describe	0.3%
Prefer not to say	5.6%
Unknown	34.7%

Table A2 Police officers by disability status, England and Wales, as at 31 March 2023

	Percentage (%) of all officers (headcount)
Known	57.9%
of which: Yes	8.7%
of which: No	91.3%
Prefer not to say	1.7%
Unknown	40.4%

Annex B: Differences between this publication and Police Workforce, England and Wales Statistics

Throughout the duration of this recruitment campaign, while this release has provided a quarterly update on the number of police officers (on a headcount basis) in England and Wales, it is not intended to replace the long running statistical series Police workforce, England and Wales, which also contains information on other police workers.

This release has been published on a quarterly basis in January, April, July and October, each year, throughout the duration of the Police Officer Uplift recruitment campaign. Each bulletin has provided provisional data for the most recent quarter, and finalised data are published in the next quarter. This release therefore updates the provisional “as at 31 March” figures published in April 2023, to finalised data based on information provided by forces at the time of release.

The Home Office first reported whether the 20,000 additional officers had provisionally been met as at 31 March 2023 in the April 2023 release of this publication series and informed users it was the penultimate release. Following revisions from 7 forces to figures up to March 2023 (equating a difference of –6 to the total headcount in England and Wales), this publication reports the final position as at 31 March 2023 and is the final publication in this statistical series.

This publication is released alongside the biannual Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin which also covers data as at 31 March 2023. Following this release this statistical series on the police officer uplift will be retired, and reporting on the size and composition of the police workforce will continue on a biannual basis in the Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin which reports on the position as at 31 March, released in July each year, and as at 30 September, released in January each year. Any future revisions to the figures as at 31 March 2023 will be provided in the biannual release. No further updates will be made to this series.

The data released in the longstanding biannual Police workforce, England and Wales statistical release have been designated as National Statistics, and users are encouraged to use those data to analyse long-term trends in police numbers. The biannual release provides a snapshot of officer numbers on both a full-time equivalent (FTE) and headcount basis as at 31 March and 30 September each year, as well as more detailed breakdowns on joiners and leavers.

Police workforce, England and Wales
Frequency of release: Biannually (July and January)
Period covered: Data at 31-Mar and 30-Sept each year
Workforce covered: Police forces in England and Wales, British Transport Police, and National Crime Agency
Measurement: FTE and headcount

Police officer uplift, England and Wales
Frequency of release: Quarterly (July, October, January, April)
Period covered: Data at the end of the preceding quarter up to 31 March 2023 Workforce covered: Police forces in England and Wales
Measurement: Headcount

The statistics cover all the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales.

In line with the established statistical series used for measuring the size and composition of the police workforce (Police workforce, England and Wales), figures quoted in this bulletin include those on career breaks or other forms of long term absence, as well as those seconded into police forces from other constabularies. It excludes those seconded out from forces to central services (for example, the Home Office and the National Crime Agency).

Headcount versus full-time equivalent

Our headline workforce statistics (published biannually) report on officers on both a full-time equivalent (FTE) and headcount basis. However, given that headcount is the most appropriate way to measure and track the recruitment processes which relate to individuals (for example, applications, vetting, assessment centres), this release reports on officers on a headcount basis only. There is a relatively small difference between the headcount and FTE figures. The most recently published police workforce statistics, at the time of this release, the Police workforce, England and Wales: 31 March 2023 bulletin, showed that, as at 31 March 2023, the police officer headcount was 149,566 and the FTE was 147,430 – a 1.4% difference. For new recruits, the difference in the 2 measures is likely to be even smaller as most new joiners tend to start on a full-time basis.

1. This means that the statistics meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, impartiality, quality and public value, and are fully compliant with the Code of Practice for Statistics. ↩

2. This means that the statistics meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, impartiality, quality and public value, and are fully compliant with the Code of Practice for Statistics. ↩

3. Calculated using Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) mid-2019 population estimates. ↩

4. Calculated using the ONS 2021 Census population estimates. ↩