Guidance

User guide to police workforce statistics

Updated 24 January 2024

Applies to England and Wales

1. Introduction

This user guide is designed to be a useful reference guide with explanatory notes on the issues and classifications that are key to the production and presentation of the Home Office’s biannual statistical release Police workforce, England and Wales.

What’s included in the statistics

The main annual release (at as 31 March) covers the full range of statistics shown below, while the shorter mid-year release contains statistics on the numbers of officers and other police workers in post as at 30 September each year.

Statistics from other data sources may be referenced in the release. Where this is the case, links to data sources are made in the relevant sections of the release.

Workforce numbers (biannual)

• total number of officers, staff, Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), designated officers, special constables and police support volunteers, as at 31 March and 30 September each year, full time equivalent (headcount for special constables and police support volunteers)

Coverage: Police forces in England and Wales and British Transport Police

Workforce numbers (annual)

• number of officers by rank and gender, full time equivalent
• number of officers, staff and PCSOs, by gender and full/part-time employment, headcount

Coverage: Police forces in England and Wales and British Transport Police

Promotions (annual)

• number of officers promoted, by rank to which they were promoted, gender, and ethnicity

Coverage: Police forces in England and Wales (excludes British Transport Police)

Joiners and leavers (annual)

• number of officer joiners by rank, gender, joiner type, and ethnicity
• number of officer leavers by rank, gender, leaver type, and ethnicity
• staff, PCSO, designated officer and special constable joiners and leavers, by ethnicity and gender

Coverage: Police forces in England and Wales and British Transport Police

Ethnicity (annual)

• number of officers, by detailed ethnic group, gender, worker type and rank (for officers)

Coverage: Police forces in England and Wales and British Transport Police

Police functions (annual)

• number of officers, staff and PCSOs, by primary function

Coverage: Police forces in England and Wales and British Transport Police

Long term absence (annual)

• number of officers on long term absence (including sickness), by rank and gender

Coverage: Police forces in England and Wales and British Transport Police

Recuperative and adjusted duties (annual)

• number of officers on recuperative and adjusted duties

Coverage: Police forces in England and Wales and British Transport Police

Length of service (Official Statistics) (annual)

• number of officers, by length of service

Coverage: Police forces in England and Wales and British Transport Police

Age (annual)

• age of workers, by worker type (headcount)

Coverage: Police forces in England and Wales and British Transport Police

Annex: Additional protected characteristics (annual)

• experimental statistics on disability status, sexual orientation, and religious beliefs of officers (headcount)

Coverage: Police forces in England and Wales and British Transport Police

Annex: Police officer assaults (annual)

• number of police officer assaults

Coverage: Police forces in England and Wales and British Transport Police

2. Data Quality

2.1 Quality summary

The published figures on the police workforce are sourced from police forces’ personnel records. The Home Office is continually working with police forces to fully understand their processes and the limitations of the data.

The section below outlines the key characteristics and limitations of each dataset. Where there are limitations, the implications of these in terms of uses of the data are outlined. The strengths and limitations of the data vary from force to force depending on specific internal data collection and quality assurance procedures.

2.2 Workforce Numbers

Background:

• Forces keep records of all staff employed by the force on their Human Resource (HR) and payroll systems. Employees will not be paid if they are not on these systems, and so it is in the interests of the force and the individuals to ensure that these systems are kept up to date.

Limitations: HR and payroll systems are not always aligned in forces. Differences between them sometimes need to be corrected manually.
Implications: Published figures may not always be completely accurate if HR systems are not updated quickly to reflect the payroll system. The 2 systems are usually cross checked periodically in forces, but changes in staff numbers can sometimes take a little time to feed into the statistics. However, with the introduction of a quarterly data collection for the police uplift programme, and reconciliation between the 2 datasets, this has improved.

Limitations: Special constable and police support volunteer numbers can fluctuate depending on how often forces review their data and remove those who have not recently done shifts from their systems.
Implications:Year on year changes in the number of special constables and police support volunteers should be treated with some caution, particularly at force level.

Summary
The workforce numbers data is of high quality and the limitations are likely to have a minimal impact on the data quality. An accurate picture of the workforce is essential for forces to ensure that their workers’ pay and pension arrangements are correct.

2.3 Protected characteristics

Background:

Information on demographics, such as gender and ethnicity, is inputted into HR systems when an individual is recruited. These characteristics can usually be amended by HR or the individual at any time. Most forces have self-service systems to allow employees to amend their details.

Data on protected characteristics are often used by forces as part of their own diversity monitoring schemes. Several forces publish diversity reports, and the data feed into these. There is therefore a need for forces to be assured that these data are reliable.

As part of an initiative to improve data on the police workforce and to align the monthly data collected for the police uplift programme with the police workforce statistics, a National Standards for Workforce Data has been developed. The standards were developed in collaboration with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing (as well as considering pre-existing frameworks such as those used in the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Census).

The National Standards for Workforce Data contain harmonised principles within policing for the collection of data on protected characteristics (and some other demographic information). The variables covered by the Standards are:

• ethnicity
• age
• religion and belief
• disability
• sexual orientation
• gender
• sex
• gender reassignment

A full breakdown of the standards can be found in Annex B of this user guide.

From the year ending March 2021, the data collection on protected characteristics was therefore expanded, to include religion and belief, gender reassignment, sexual orientation and disability status, which were previously not collected, as well as sex and gender and ethnicity, which were already collected. This change, along with the harmonised categories for each variable (Workforce Data Standards), was agreed between Home Office, NPCC and the College of Policing.

The Home Office and NPCC continue to work with police forces to improve the quality of data collected on protected characteristics. It is expected that this will result in more complete data for officers and new recruits, as well as updated records for those officers in post where a characteristic was previously not stated.

Limitations: Information on protected characteristics is self-reported by individuals on police force HR systems.
Implications: Recent changes to police force HR systems to align with the new Data Standards has 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. The impact of this is that for some protected characteristics (for example, sexual orientation, disability status and religious beliefs) there are a high volume of officers in the “not known” category.

Limitations: Protected characteristic data relies on individuals (and HR teams) keeping the system up to date and accurate.
Implications: Breakdowns by protected characterise may not always be totally accurate. Cases where individuals have not provided their data appear as “not stated” within the data tables. Some forces have larger proportions of these cases than others. Workers may also opt to choose “Prefer not to say”.

Limitations: Police forces were asked to implement the Workforce Data Standards from April 2021. For many this meant an introduction of new fields to the HR systems, or a change or categories collected previously.
Implications: The annual police workforce and quarterly police officer uplift bulletins provide data for each protected characteristic collected. The bulletins focus on sex and gender (see below), ethnicity, and age where the data is more complete. However, there is a high volume of workers in the “not known” category for other protected characteristics including sexual orientation, disability status and religious beliefs. Further details on sexual orientation, disability status and religious beliefs are provided in an annex at a national level. Due to the low level of completeness this data should be interpreted with caution until data quality is improved.

Limitations: Previously, data collected and presented in this bulletin referred to the sex of the officer, limited to male or female, as requested from police forces by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The implementation of the Data Standards expanded the categories under sex, as well as requested additional information on gender. For some forces, this change has led to a large proportion of officers with an “unknown” gender or “unknown” sex.
Implications: While the expectation is that this will improve in future years, a hybrid approach has been taken in this bulletin to account for cases with an “unknown” gender recorded. Where gender data is not available, analysts have instead used sex data, and vice versa.

Limitations: In 2021, for the first time in this series data has been collected on ethnicity at the 18+1 ONS 2011 Census classifications, meaning that more detailed data is now available (it was previously collected at the aggregated 5+1 level). In 2023, data on ethnicity was collected at the 19+1 ONS Census 2021 classifications.
Implications: Direct comparisons between publications for 2021 onwards to previous years for the Asian and Other ethnic groups are difficult. In the updated ethnicity classifications persons identifying as “Chinese” are classified under the “Asian” group rather than “Other”. Previously, those identifying as Chinese would have been counted in this release under “Other”, and not separately identifiable.

Summary
Data on the protected characteristics of officers is generally high quality once complete since it is filled out by the individuals themselves. Data on sex, ethnicity and age is of high quality and has a high completion rate. However, during the implementation period of the Data Standards, and while forces update their HR systems, data for some protected characteristics is likely to be incomplete, meaning that there are limitations in the analysis undertaken. Data on sexual orientation, disability status and religious beliefs is classed as experimental statistics and therefore assessed as low to medium quality due to lower levels of completion; this data should be interpreted with caution until data quality is improved.

2.4 Changes to data collection on protected characteristics

As part of the initiative to improve data on the police workforce and to align the monthly data collected for the police uplift programme with these statistics, a number of changes have been made to the data collection template, particularly around the collection of data on protected characteristics.

In collaboration with the NPCC and the College of Policing (as well as considering pre-existing frameworks such as those used in the ONS Census), a National Standards for Workforce Data has been developed, which contain harmonised principles within policing for the collection of data on protected characteristics (and some other demographic information). The variables covered by the Standards are:

• ethnicity
• age
• religion and belief
• disability
• sexual orientation
• gender
• sex
• gender reassignment

A full breakdown of the standards can be found in Annex B of this user guide.

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 is not currently complete. The impact of this is that for some protected characteristics there are a high volume of officers in the “not known” category.

The diversity section of the bi-annual police workforce release and quarterly police officer uplift release focuses on the protected characteristics of sex, ethnicity and age, where the data is more complete and reliable. In addition, between July 2021 and the final release in July 2023, statistics have been included in an Annex of the police officer uplift release to provide information on the proportion of officers broken down by sexual orientation and disability status using data collected by the NPCC as part of the police uplift programme. From July 2022, statistics have been included in an Annex to the police workforce release to provide information on the proportion of officers broken down by sexual orientation, disability status and religious beliefs using data collected by the Home Office.

The Home Office and NPCC continue to work with police forces to improve the quality of data collected on protected characteristics. It is expected that this will result in more complete data for officers and new recruits, as well as updated records for those officers in post where a characteristic was previously not stated.

There are still some potential comparability issues to be aware of. Data collection on both sex and gender has improved in recent years, however, some forces were not previously distinguishing sex from gender. In some cases this led to a large proportion of officers with an “unknown” gender or “unknown” sex. Where this was the case, a hybrid approach was taken to account for cases with an “unknown” sex recorded. Throughout the release, where sex data is not available, analysts have instead used gender data.

Furthermore, in the year ending March 2021 data was collected on ethnicity at the 18+1 ONS 2011 Census classifications, meaning that more detailed data is now available (they were previously collected at the aggregated 5+1 level). However, direct comparisons between previous years for the Asian and Other ethnic groups are difficult, since under the updated model persons identifying as Chinese are classified under the Asian group rather than Other. Previously, those identifying as Chinese would have been counted in this release under “Other”, and not separately identifiable. In the year ending March 2023, data on ethnicity was collected by the 19+1 ONS Census 2021 classifications for the first time.

2.5 Joiners and leavers

Background:

By keeping a record of staff members, including their joining and leaving dates in the force, forces can report the number of joiners and leavers in a given period.

Joining and leaving dates need to be correct in order to ensure that individuals’ pay and pension details are correct.

Limitations: Joiner and leaver data relies on HR systems being kept up to date. It is possible that sometimes joiners and leavers will not be picked up in the correct period.
Implications: A small number of workers joining and leaving towards the end of each financial year may not be included in the figures for that year. As a result, joiners and leavers totals may be slightly inaccurate.

Limitations: Data on the route of entry or exit depends on forces correctly interpreting the definitions for each type.
Implications: In a small number of cases forces may incorrectly classify a joiner or leaver if they misinterpret the guidance provided by the Home Office. Totals for some joiner and leaver categories may therefore be slightly inaccurate. This is more likely to be an issue at force level than nationally.

Limitations: Since data on rank is collected as a snapshot as at 31 March each year, the rank of an individual who is classified as a ‘joiner’ may be different to the rank that the individual joined at (such as where the individual is promoted in-year).
Implications: Joiners are shown in this data at the rank in which they were as at the 31 March snapshot. If the individual joined within the year and were later promoted in-year, they show as a joiner at their new rank.

Limitations: As above, where an individual changes their FTE in-year, only the FTE as at 31 March is recorded, which may differ to the FTE they joined at.
Implications: Joiners are shown in this data at their FTE as recorded at the 31 March snapshot. If the individual joined within the year on 1 FTE and their hours were adjusted in-year, such as reduced to 0.5 FTE, they show as a joiner at their current FTE of 0.5.

Summary
Joiners and leavers data is of high quality and the limitations are likely to have a minimal impact on the data quality. An accurate picture of the current workforce, and thus the number of joiners and leavers, is essential for forces to ensure that their payroll information is correct.

2.6 Promotions

Background:

By keeping a record of officer promotions, including the date on which the officer was promoted, forces can report the number of promotions in a given period.

Promotion dates need to be correct in order to ensure that individuals’ pay and pension details are correct.

Limitations: Promotion data relies on HR systems being kept up to date. It is possible that sometimes promotions will not be picked up in the correct period.
Implications: A small number of promotions towards the end of each financial year may not be included in the figures for that year. As a result, promotion totals may be slightly inaccurate.

Limitations: Data on the rank to which an officer is promoted is dependent on HR systems being kept up to date however HR and payroll systems are not always aligned in forces.
Implications: Published figures may not always be completely accurate if HR systems are not updated quickly to reflect the payroll system. The 2 systems are usually cross checked periodically in forces, but changes in rank can sometimes take a little time to feed into the statistics.

Summary
Promotions data is of high quality and the limitations are likely to have a minimal impact on the data quality. An accurate picture of the current workforce, and thus the number of promotions, is essential for forces to ensure that their payroll information is correct.

2.7 Police functions

Background:

Police workers are categorised based on their primary role, that is, the role in which they spend most of their time. If an officer spends 60% of their time in role A and 40% in role B, they would only be categorised as working in role A.

Changes in the structure and type of policing can have a significant effect on the figures.

Limitations: This data is based on the primary role of workers. This will not reflect all of the roles that they fulfil in their job.
Implications: Some functions may appear to be under or over-represented in the data. For example, if 100 officers spend just 20% of their time in function A, this will be counted as zero officers working in that area.

Limitations: Policing structures can change over time, which can distort the figures.
Implications: Caution should be exercised when comparing figures for individual functions over time, particularly where there have been known changes to policing structures in that area.

Limitations: The way in which forces classify the primary role can be subjective, so this can affect the consistency of the figures over time depending on who makes this judgement.
Implications: Caution should be exercised when making comparisons over time for specific functions at force level. This is less likely to affect the aggregated measure of frontline policing.

Limitations: Some forces are not able to make a clear distinction between certain functions (for example, neighbourhoods and response), and therefore record the majority of/all officers under one function.
Implications: Caution should be exercised when comparing figures for individual functions over time and across forces. Details of known inconsistencies are included in the data tables.

Limitations: Some forces are not able to separate out employees on career breaks, maternity leave and other long-term absence. Therefore, in some cases these are not included in the “Other” category, but in the relevant function.
Implications: This data should not be used to assess long term absence in forces. The numbers for individual functions may be slightly inconsistent between forces and years, depending on how forces have categorised staff on long term absence. However, the impact of this is likely to be very small, given the relatively small proportion of employees on long-term absence as at 31 March each year.

Summary
Functions data is of medium quality, and some caution should be taken when using these figures and attempting to make comparisons over time. Different forces may classify primary roles in different ways, and within forces figures can change over time depending on police structures. The new functions framework (see Annex A) means that most individual functions can no longer be compared over time in a meaningful way.

2.8 Long-term absence (including sickness)

Background:

Long-term absences are those that have lasted for more than 28 days as at 31 March.

Forces keep records of sickness amongst their employees. These are often recorded as part their main HR system, but sometimes on separate systems.

Sickness absence cases need to be opened and closed by the relevant staff member, manager, or HR professional.

Other absence types are usually recorded on force HR systems, although in a small number of cases forces are unable to provide data.

Limitations: The completeness of the data often relies on managers and HR professionals recording all cases on the system.
Implications: Some sickness cases may not be included if not recorded on the system. This is likely to affect short term sickness data more than long-term sickness data.

Limitations: Information about the length of the absence depends on cases being closed promptly by managers or HR professionals.
Implications: Some durations of absence may be wrong if absences are not closed promptly. In the case of sickness, this is likely to affect short term sickness data more than long-term sickness data.

Limitations: Data on some absence types are not always available for all forces.
Implications: Comparisons between forces for absence types other than sickness and maternity or paternity leave should be done with caution.

Limitations: Some absences that are expected to last more than 28 days, but have not yet done so, may be wrongly included in the data.
Implications: Figures for some forces may be a slight overestimate if cases that have not yet lasted 28 days are included.

Limitations: Data is based on a snapshot as at 31 March only.
Implications: Data on absences and sicknesses throughout the year is not collected, so seasonal illnesses from other times of the year are excluded.

Limitations: The full-time equivalent (FTE) of individuals on career breaks is sometimes adjusted on force HR systems to 0.
Implications: For individuals on career breaks some forces remove the FTE of that individual from their HR systems, while maintaining the headcount as 1. This means the FTE would show as 0 and we do not have an accurate record of the FTE the individual was on before taking a career break.

Summary
Long-term absence data is of medium quality, as it is dependent to a large extent on how accurately forces record absences such as sickness and career breaks on their systems. Some caution should be taken when making comparisons between forces and years.

2.9 Length of service (Official Statistics)

Background:

This data should cover length of service in the whole of the police service, not just in the current force.

Forces require this information in order to ensure that pension arrangements for their staff are correct.

Forces usually hold the exact start date on their systems, so the length of service categories should be accurate.

Limitations: A number of forces are unable to provide data on length of service in the police and can only provide length of service in current force or post.
Implications: For some forces length of service may be undercounted, as previous posts in other police forces are not accounted for. This is particularly likely to affect senior ranks. Nationally the data will show too few people in longer service categories, and too many in shorter ones. However, given that constables make up the majority of the workforce, the effect of this is likely to be relatively small.

Limitations: The data relies on the start date used being the same across all forces and years.
Implications: Data may not always be comparable in different years or forces if different start dates are used. However, it is not expected that this would have a large effect.

Limitations: Unpaid long-term absence and career breaks may be included by some forces. Most do exclude them.
Implications: Data may not always be perfectly comparable between forces. However, this should only affect a small number of cases, and should not have a major impact on length of service in most cases.

Summary
Length of service data is of medium quality, with some known limitations about forces’ ability to include all service, rather than just service in the current force. This should be considered when comparing data between forces and considering the overall national picture.

2.10 Recuperative and adjusted duties

Background:

Forces need to record the number of officers on recuperative and adjusted duties accurately in order to ensure that they are managing their workforce appropriately.

Limitations: Forces may not always accurately record all individuals who are on these duties on their systems.
Implications: The data may be an undercount in some forces where records are not complete.

Limitations: Forces may not keep records up to date, particularly for recuperative duties, which tend to be a short-term measure.
Implications: Data for the number of officers on recuperative duties may not be perfectly up to date at year end, if forces have not kept their records up to date. The extent of this will vary by force.

On 1 May 2015, reforms came into effect that meant forces were required to re-categorise officers who were not fully deployable. This saw the replacement of the previous categories (which were used in different ways by different forces) with the more precise category of ‘limited duties’. This includes 3 sub-categories of ‘adjusted’, ‘recuperative’ and ‘management restricted’ duties’ (data on management restricted duties are not collected by the Home Office). The transition to this new framework has taken place on different timescales across forces, and as a result, data collected as at 31 March 2016 to 2018, will include officers categorised under a mixture of the old and new definitions (that is, those officers previously categorised as ‘restricted’ on medical grounds and those newly categorised as being on ‘adjusted’ duties). For the year ending 31 March 2019 onwards, it is likely that the data will more closely reflect the new categories, as forces have completed their transition to these categories.

Summary
Recuperative and adjusted or restricted duties data is of medium quality, with the reliability of the data varying depending on how accurately forces record and maintain this information. Comparisons between years and forces should be done with some caution given the transition from the old categories to the new ones.

2.11 Annex: police officer assaults

Background:

The data source for assaults on police officers is the police recorded crime series, published by the ONS, within the latest Crime in England and Wales release.

Previously it was only possible to identify assaults on police officers that did not result in injury within these recorded crime figures. Data on assaults on police officers that did result in injury previously came from forces’ health and safety systems. Data on assaults with injury on PCSOs are still reported to forces’ health and safety systems.

On 1st April 2017, a new crime classification was introduced of ‘assault with injury on a constable’, therefore all data on assaults on police officers now comes from police recorded crime data.

Limitations: The completeness of the data often relies on officers reporting a crime.
Implications: Some officers view assaults as part of the job and do not always raise crime reports, therefore the data is likely to be an underestimate of assaults on officers.

Limitations: Not all forces can identify whether the police officer was on duty at the time of the assault or not.
Implications: Comparisons between forces should be done with caution due to variability in recording.

Limitations: Lack of comparability with older, health and safety system data, due to variation in recording when compared to police recorded crime data.
Implications: Comparisons over time are limited due to differences between what is recorded on health and safety systems and what is recorded as crime. For example, ‘assault with injury on a constable’ will exclude more serious cases of assault, as these will be recorded under a more serious crime classification, from which it is not possible to separately identify police officers.

Summary
Assaults data is of low to medium quality, as it is dependent to a large extent on the willingness of officers to report crimes and does not provide a complete picture of assaults against the police. Caution should be taken when making comparisons between forces.

2.12 Population

Background:

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) collect the decennial (every 10 years) Census. The Census is the most complete source of information about the population which gives us a picture of all the people and households in England and Wales and includes breakdowns by personal characteristics.

It is important to note that the Census is an estimate and not every individual is captured in the survey; hard-to-reach groups are the greatest challenge to capture in the Census, such as individuals with no fixed address.

Limitations: The Census is a snapshot on a day and is collected every 10 years.
Implications: Over time the size and structure of the population will change; however, year on year changes are not captured. ONS use the latest census to calculate mid-year population estimates for the years between the censuses.

Limitations: The Census is the only source of information about the protected characteristics of the population.
Implications: Over time the size and structure of the population will change however the Census is the only source of information on the population by protected characteristics. Therefore, the Census population data is used for a long period of time when comparing the police workforce to the local population.

Limitations: Protected characteristics in the Census are self-defined by the individual.
Implications: Research into the stability of ethnic identity in England and Wales (2001-2011) found that changes to an individuals’ sense of identify can occur between Census years. An individual may feel their ethnicity does not fit with the categories offered in the Census. This could also affect other protected characteristics such as gender. The impact of this is likely to be small compared to the change in the population between Censuses.

Limitations: The Census is an estimate rather than a count.
Implications: There will always be a small percentage of people who will have been missed and an even smaller proportion who will have been counted twice. However, the Census Coverage survey estimates how many people have been missed or double-counted, allowing the Census to be adjusted accordingly.

Limitations: Risk of error by respondents.
Implications: Some forms may have been filled out incorrectly, be incomplete or have missing information about a person or household. The Census Quality Survey is a survey carried out after the Census to estimate the level of respondent error. Editing and imputation strategies are used to correct inconsistencies and missing information.

Limitations: Risk of error by researchers.
Implications: Field staff may fail to identify all households within a multi-occupied dwelling, not all members of a recorded household may be included. There may also be system or processing errors.

2.13 Quality Assurance by the Home Office

All the data received by the Home Office undergoes a strict quality assurance (QA) process to ensure it is fit for purpose and published to the highest possible standard. Any data quality issues are flagged and resolved with forces. Before publication, data is sent back to forces to ensure it is correct. Details of any known data quality issues are included in the relevant part of the bulletin, and or data tables.

While all datasets undergo a thorough QA process, the level of quality assurance varies according to factors such as the profile of the dataset, the likelihood of error, and what the data is used for. Data that is widely used and that informs important and high-profile decisions will receive the highest level of quality assurance. Other data will undergo a more limited, but proportional level of QA. This ensures the data is fit-for-purpose in terms of the individual uses of each dataset. The quality assurance checks include looking for things such as:

• missing or incomplete data
• inconsistencies in the data
• extreme values

Once these checks have been complete, Home Office statisticians undertake trend analysis to look for unusual or unexpected trends in the data. Any inconsistencies or unusual trends are flagged with forces who are requested to either explain the trends or resubmit amended data.

3. Accredited Official Statistics status

3.1 Process

All official statistics should comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics (“the Code”). The Code provides producers of Official Statistics with practices they must commit to when producing and releasing Official Statistics. When producers of Official Statistics comply with the Code, it gives users of the statistics and members of the public confidence that statistics published by government are of public value, are high quality and are produced by people and organisations that are worthy of trust.

The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) is the regulatory arm of the UK Statistics Authority, which is separate from producers of statistics, and provides independent regulation of all official statistics produced in the UK. The OSR reviews compliance with the Code when assessing whether Official Statistics should be Accredited Official Statistics. ‘Accredited Official Statistics’ were formerly known as ‘National Statistics’ however the OSR introduced new terminology in September 2023. National Statistics is the legal term set out in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 for ‘Accredited Official Statistics’ that have been judged by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) to comply with the Code.

Official Statistics are awarded ‘Accredited Official Statistics’ status following an assessment by the OSR when they demonstrate they meet the highest standards of Code compliance. Once awarded, it is the statistical producer’s responsibility to maintain compliance with the standards expected of Accredited Official Statistics.

3.2 Accredited Official Statistics status

Both the Police Workforce, England and Wales and Police Officer Uplift statistical publications are ‘Accredited Official Statistics’ formerly known as ‘National Statistics’. and have been granted accreditation by the UK Statistics Authority. This means these statistics are produced to the high professional standards set out in the Code meeting the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs and are produced free from political interference. Further information about accredited official statistics can be found on the OSR’s website.

3.3 Accountability statement

Our statistical practice is regulated by the OSR which sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to. You are welcome to contact us directly via policingstatistics@homeoffice.gov.uk with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

4. User Engagement

4.1 Uses of the data

The statistics produced in the series are used by a range of users to monitor trends in the police workforce in England and Wales. Specific uses of the data are listed below.

Informing the general public – the statistics are used by both national and local media, which in turn informs the public about trends in workforce numbers. Information on the statistics is also routinely requested by Parliamentary Questions and Freedom of Information requests.

Policy making and monitoring – the statistics are used by policy areas to monitor the state of the police workforce, including areas such as total resource levels, diversity, recruitment and retention, and frontline policing. The data is also used to inform discussion around the allocation of police resources.

Third parties – the statistics are used by a range of third parties, from civil liberty groups to academics.

Informing public marketing campaigns – police workforce statistics are used to measure the effectiveness of recruitment campaigns by individual police forces or nationally.

Other statistical publications – the data feeds into a number of other statistical bulletins. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) produce 2 statistical bulletins which draw on police diversity data published in this series. These are:

• Race and the criminal justice system
• Women and the criminal justice system

The Office for National Statistics also use the total workforce numbers in their Public Sector Employment reports.

Ethnicity facts and figures – the statistics are used by the Race Disparity Unit within Cabinet Office to monitor the ethnic diversity of public services, including the police workforce. The data feeds into the ‘Police workforce ethnicity facts and figures’ published on GOV.UK.

Inspections and auditing – His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) use the data when carrying out inspections on the size and composition of police forces. Specifically, the data has fed into a number of police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (PEEL) inspections. HMIC also publish further data on the police workforce (for example, police officer length of service, police officers on recuperative and adjusted duties, sickness absence) as part of their Value for money profiles.

National and international comparisons – as well as allowing for comparisons between forces in England and Wales, when the data is used in conjunction with other datasets, comparisons may be made with other areas. In particular the Scottish Government and the Police Service of Northern Ireland publish a range of statistics relating crime and justice. Caution should be taken when making comparisons between datasets, as they may not be directly comparable due to differences with both what data is collected and how the data is collected.

4.2 Figures for other countries

Quarterly statistics on the number of police officers employed by Scottish police forces are broken down by police force and deployment and are published on the Scottish Government’s website.

Statistics on the number of police officers employed by Police Service Northern Ireland are published on the Police Service of Northern Ireland website.

European comparisons of the numbers of police officers appear periodically in Eurostat’s Statistics in Focus series. The most recent, EU trends in Statistics on police-recorded crime and the criminal justice system, 2008 to 2013 contains annual figures up to 2013 for individual European countries on its website at: Crime and criminal justice statistics, data 2008-2013. Eurostat also publish ‘Police, court and prison personnel statistics’ which include more recent data on the number of police officers in European countries.

4.3 Where are the latest published figures?

Forthcoming publications are pre-announced on the GOV.UK website.

The Police Workforce, England and Wales and other Home Office statistical releases are available from the Home Office pages of the GOV,UK website.

Older publications can be found on the UK Government Web Archive.

4.4 Feedback and enquiries

If you have any feedback on the releases, any other feedback or any enquiries, please email them to policingstatistics@homeoffice.gov.uk or write to:

Policing and Fire Analysis Unit
2nd Floor, Peel Building
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ and ‘Police Officer Uplift’ are ‘Accredited Official Statistics’, a subset of official statistics that has been granted accreditation by the UK Statistics Authority for complying with the Code of Practice for Statistics. These statistics produced to high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice and undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs. They are produced free from political interference.

5. Glossary

Accredited Official Statistics: a status accredited to statistics by the Office for Statistics Regulation for complying with the Code of Practice for Statistics, meeting the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code.

Adjusted duties: duties falling short of full deployment, in respect of which workplace adjustments (including reasonable adjustments under the Equality Act 2010) have been made to overcome barriers to working. For an officer to be placed on adjusted duties, he or she must be attending work on a regular basis and be working for the full number of hours for which he or she is paid (in either a full time or part time substantive role).

Attrition rate: number of leavers during the financial year, as a proportion of the workforce as at 31 March (that is, the end) of the previous year.

Available for duty: numbers of officers or staff in post, excluding long-term absentees.

Contract staff: police workforce working for police forces but not directly employed by them. Excludes all police officers (officers do not work on a contract basis) and those on secondment.

Designated officers: skilled police staff (who are not police officers) employed to exercise specific powers that would otherwise be available to police officers. Designation can be to one or more of 4 roles:

• police community support officer (PCSO)
• investigation officer
• detention officer
• escort officer.

More details of the coverage and underlying legislation appear in section 7 of this user guide.

Financial year: the 12 months ending on 31 March.

Full-time equivalent (FTE): count of police workers that takes account of part-time working practices. For example, a full-time employee is counted as 1.0 and a part-time employee who works 70% of normal hours is counted as 0.7. It accounts for contracted hours, rather than actual hours worked that might include overtime.

Government Office Region (GOR): the Government Office Regions have been the primary classification for the presentation of regional statistics, although the regional government offices were closed in 2011. There are 9 GORs in England:

• North East
• North West
• Yorkshire and the Humber
• East Midlands
• West Midlands
• Eastern
• London
• South East
• South West

In this report analysis by region also includes separate analysis for Wales.

Headcount: an alternative measure to full-time equivalent, it counts all employees as 1.0, whether full- or part-time.

Joiners: includes new recruits to the police and transfers from other police forces. Further details on coverage appear in sections 7 (police officers), 8 (PCSOs and designated officers) and 9 (police staff and specials) of this user guide.

Joiner rate: number of joiners during the financial year, as a proportion of the workforce as at 31 March (that is, the end) of that year.

Leavers: includes resignations, normal and medical retirements, dismissals and contract termination, deaths and transfers to other police forces. Further details on coverage appear in sections 7 (police officers), 8 (PCSOs and designated officers), and 9 (police staff and specials) of this user guide.

Long-term absentees: police workers who are either on a career break, compassionate leave, maternity or paternity leave, special leave, study leave, suspension, or sick leave and have been absent for at least 28 calendar days.

Management restricted duty: Duties falling short of full deployment to which an officer is allocated in circumstances in which: verifiable confidential or source sensitive information or intelligence has come to the notice of the force that questions the suitability of an officer to continue in his or her current post; or serious concerns are raised which require management actions, both for the protection of individuals and the organisation. In either case also that: criminal or misconduct proceedings are not warranted; and the chief constable has lost confidence in the officer continuing in their current role.

National Statistics: the legal term for ‘Accredited Official Statistics’ as set out in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

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 community support officers (PCSOs): one type of designated officer, they are police staff employed in a highly visible, patrolling role. More details on the roles of PCSOs and underlying legislation appear in section 5 of this user guide.

Police officers: employees of a police force, who have taken an oath (under the Police Act 1996) to uphold the law. Details of which officers are included in the statistics appear in section 4 of this user guide.

Police staff: support staff employed by a police force, other than police officers and designated officers (except where specified). Details on coverage appear in section 6 of this user guide.

Police support volunteers: members of the public who, by choice, put their time, experience, knowledge and skills at the disposal of the police, without expectation of compensation or financial reward.

Police workers: persons employed by the police, whether police officer or police staff.

Population figures: some of the tables and graphs in the main annual release use population figures to calculate the total number of police officers per 100,000 population. The population figures used for the 31 March 2014 statistics are mid-2012 population estimates based on the 2011 Census, provided by the Office for National Statistics.

Recuperative duties: duties falling short of full deployment, undertaken by a police officer following an injury, accident, illness, or medical incident, during which the officer adapts to and prepares for a return to full duties and the full hours for which they are paid, and is assessed to determine whether he or she is capable of making such a return.

Secondment: police officers who are employed by one police force but are on loan to another (or elsewhere).

Special constables (specials): part-time volunteer officers who have all the same powers as regular police officers.

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.

6. Conventions used in police workforce statistics

6.1 Rounding

Data is mainly provided unrounded in the data tables of Police Workforce, England and Wales. This is to promote transparency and allow users to explore the data further.

However, caution should be taken when comparing small differences between time periods; while care is taken in collecting and collating all the information obtained, the figures are subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large recording system and are not necessarily accurate to the last digit.

If data is published in a table in a rounded form, the footnotes to that table explain the reasons for doing this.

Percentages are rounded to the nearest per cent using the round-half-away-from-zero method.

The round-half-away-from-zero method has been used, so that in the borderline case where the fraction of the percentage is exactly 0.5, the rounded figure is equal to y + 0.5 if y is positive, and y - 0.5 if y is negative. For example, 23.5% is rounded to 24%, and -23.5% is rounded to -24%. When rounding whole numbers the result is similar; for example, when rounding to the nearest 100, 1,250 would be reported as 1,300.

Where data is rounded, it may not sum to the totals shown, or, in the case of percentages, to 100%, because it has been rounded independently.

6.2 Use of symbols

The following symbols have been used in the tables:

.. not available;
- nil

6.3 Open Data Tables

Alongside the main release, the Home Office publish Open Data Tables to allow users to analyse the raw data. These can be analysed using programmes such as R and Python, or in Excel using pivot tables. Users should note that figures in the accompanying statistical release exclude British Transport Police and are on a full-time equivalent (FTE) basis.

6.4 Revisions to data

Data for the latest full calendar year or financial year may be revised in due course. It is the authors’ standard practice to incorporate revisions for previous years in the latest release. Corrections and revisions follow the Home Office corporate revisions policy.

7. Police officers

7.1 Coverage

The Police Workforce, England and Wales release contains figures on numbers of police officers employed by the 43 Home-Office-funded police forces in England and Wales.

The headline figures comprise the total number of police officers in these 43 forces, and the measure used is for the full-time equivalent (FTE) number of police officers in post. This measure includes those officers on career breaks or maternity or paternity leave for a period exceeding 28 days at the end of the reporting period.

Additionally, figures are published for officers working in the British Transport Police (BTP) and National Crime Agency (NCA) in England and Wales, and officers on secondment from the 43 forces to central services.

As well as the headline FTE totals, headcount figures are published for numbers of officers in post and numbers of officers available for duty. The latter figure excludes police officers on long-term absences: career breaks; compassionate leave; maternity or paternity leave; special leave; study leave; suspensions; and long-term sickness. All these absences are for periods exceeding 28 days at the end of the reporting period.

The officer figures in this release do not include all police officers working in England and Wales. They exclude those employed by, or seconded to, police forces other than the 43 forces and BTP, for example, Royal Parks, port constabularies and military police.

In recent years a number of forces have established collaborations, both between forces and partnerships with other bodies (such as County Councils). These collaborations present challenges when counting the number of staff, joiners and leavers in forces. To ensure consistency and comparability across forces, an approach has been agreed with all forces that officers and other staff members moving to collaborative units (that is, units jointly funded with other forces) should not be treated as leavers, transferees or secondees, if they remain on the payroll of their host force (or if monies are recovered from another force). These officers and staff should be counted as part of their host force’s workforce. Forces were advised to liaise with each other to ensure workers were not counted twice. These collaboration arrangements may develop further in future, and we will continue to monitor this and consider the best way in which to collect the statistics.

8. Police community support officers and other designated officers

8.1 Police community support officers (PCSOs)

Police staff employed in a highly visible, patrolling role. They complement the work of police officers by focusing predominantly on low-level crime, disorder and anti-social behaviour. They also free up police officers’ time by taking on those policing functions that do not require the full expertise of a police officer. The legislation for PCSOs was introduced as part of the Police Reform Act 2002. The Act enables force chief officers to designate PCSOs with limited enforcement powers. Unlike police officers they do not have the power of arrest, but there is a range of standard powers that they hold (for example, to stop and search members of the public in certain situations). Additionally, each chief officer has the discretion to delegate any one of a further number of powers (for example, to seize drugs, or issue fixed penalty notices for certain offences). The first PCSOs started work on the streets of London in September 2002.

8.2 Designated officers

Persons employed by the police authority who have been chosen by chief officers to exercise specific powers that would otherwise only be available to police officers. Despite having these powers, designated officers are not police officers. They were introduced as part of the Police Reform Act 2002, sections 38 and 39 and this legislation enables the appropriate designation of skilled police staff to one or more of 4 roles:

• police community support officer (PCSO)
• investigation officer
• detention officer
• escort officer

Statistics on PCSOs are quoted separately. (Note: Police authorities in England and Wales ceased to exist for police force areas outside London on 22 November 2012, when they were replaced by directly elected police and crime commissioners).

The totals for designated officers used in Police Workforce, England and Wales include those directly employed by the police force (under section 38 of the Act) as well as contract staff (under section 39).

9. Other police staff, special constables and police support volunteers

9.1 Police staff

In Police Workforce, England and Wales, the term ‘police staff’ is used to describe all staff employed by the police force, other than police officers, police community support officers (PCSOs) and other designated officers (except where specified). Elsewhere the term is sometimes used more widely to describe all staff other than police officers.

The figures in this release include staff on fixed-term contracts, but do not include contract staff employed by private companies. It is difficult to accurately measure all types of contract staff in terms of numbers of staff working at a particular time, because of the nature of the services provided, and so figures for contract staff are excluded from the Police Workforce, England and Wales releases. This may result in some artificial falls in police staff totals, as police forces increasingly turn to contract staff to provide various services.

9.2 Special constables

Special constables are members of the public who volunteer to help the police in their duties. They have the same powers as regular officers, but do not have fixed working hours (as they may fit their time around their paid work, for example) and therefore it is inappropriate to collect figures in terms of full-time equivalent. Figures are presented in terms of headcount only.

More information on special constables appears on each police force’s website.

9.3 Police support volunteers

Police support volunteers are members of the public who, by choice, put their time, experience, knowledge and skills at the disposal of the force without expectation of compensation or financial reward. Figures in this release only include those volunteers aged 18 years or over, and who have been vetted by the force. Therefore, those who volunteers for roles such as Neighbourhood Watch or Community Speed watch are not included.

Data on the number police support volunteers was collected for the first time in 2018, on a voluntary basis.

10. Joiners and leavers

10.1 Joiner and leaver rates

The workforce figures are mainly presented on a full-time equivalent (FTE) basis unless indicated otherwise.

Joiner rates are calculated by dividing the number of FTE joiners during the financial year by the total number of FTE workers as at the end of the year (that is, 31st March). In other words, how many of those employed by the force at the end of the year joined during the course of the year.

Leaver rates are calculated by dividing the number of FTE leavers during the financial year by the total number of FTE workers at the start of the year (that is, as at 31 March of the previous year). In other words, how many of those employed at the start of the year left during the year.

These joiner and leaver rates are good indications of staff turnover within the police. However, some workers may join and leave the force during the same year, and so would not be picked up in the joiner or leaver rates. It is not possible, based on the aggregate data available, to calculate a more precise joiner or leaver rate, as individual officers cannot be tracked in the data.

10.2 Joiner and leaver types

There are various routes by which workers can join and leave the police. The categories reported on in the statistical bulletin are as follows:

Joiners

Standard direct recruit
Individuals joining the force for the first time, including via Direct Entry, Fast Track and Police Now schemes. Most of these will be at constable level, although some may join at higher ranks under Direct Entry schemes, for example, inspector and superintendent. This category also includes individuals who were formerly Police Community Support Officers and are joining as a police officer.

Rejoining
Individuals who have previously left the force completely but have since rejoined.

Previously special constable
Individuals who are joining as a police officer having previously been a special constable.

Transfer
Individuals joining from one of the other 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, or another non-Home Office force (for example, the British Transport Police).

Special Constabulary
Individuals joining the Special Constabulary from outside the force.

Leavers

Death
Those who have died, either in active duty or otherwise.

Dismissal or Contract termination
Individuals who have been required to resign, made compulsorily redundant, or have had their contract terminated. While these figures will include dismissals for misconduct, they are not exclusively misconduct cases, as they also include redundancies and contract terminations.

Medical retirement
Individuals who have retired on ill health grounds.

Normal retirement
Individuals who have retired, not on ill health grounds.

Transfer
Individuals leaving to join one of the other 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, or a non-Home Office force (for example, the British Transport Police).

Voluntary resignation
Individuals who resign, leave under voluntary exit schemes, or come to the end of a fixed term contract. Special Constables who leave to join the regular constabulary, or have been inactive for more than 12 months, are included here.

Individuals who change worker type during the year are recorded both as a leaver from their old role, and a joiner in their new role. For example, a staff member who becomes a police officer would be counted as both a staff leaver (voluntary resignation) and a police officer joiner (standard direct recruit).

11. Police officer uplift

11.1 Police officer uplift statistics

Following the Government pledge to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales by 31 March 2023, the Home Office published an information note outlining our plans for statistical reporting on progress towards the recruitment of these officers. This outlined the methodology for calculating the starting figure (baseline) for which the recruitment of an additional 20,000 officers will be measured against.

Since April 2020, the Home Office has published a quarterly release on ‘Police officer uplift’ statistics. This release provided information on progress towards the recruitment of these officers and data were provided (by month) on a headcount basis for each of the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales. The ‘Police officer uplift’ statistics are due to be retired following the final release in July 2023 which will report the final position as at 31 March 2023.

While the release provided a provisional quarterly update on the number of police officers (headcount) in England and Wales, it was not intended to replace the long running statistical series ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’, which also contains information on other police workers. The data released in the biannual ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ is ‘Accredited Official Statistics’, and users are therefore encouraged to use this data to analyse 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.

11.2 ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ and ‘Police officer uplift’ statistical bulletins

Police workforce, England and Wales
Frequency of release: Biannually (July and January)
Period covered: Data at 31 March and 30 September 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 (January, April, July, October) with the first release in April 2020 and the final release in July 2023
Period covered: Data at the end of the preceding quarter
Workforce covered: Police forces in England and Wales
Measurement: Headcount

11.3 Data collection and quality assurance process

Uplift data was collected on a monthly basis, for the duration of the 3-year programme, covering data up to March 2023, and followed a process that was agreed between the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC), Home Office (HO) and police forces. The below describes the process in some detail as well as providing a summary of the comprehensive quality assurance checks carried out by each organisation. This process is well established and formally agreed within the governance of the programme.

Shortly after the end of the previous month, uplift data was collected through an NPCC led data collection return. These data returns, completed by each of the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, included built in validation checks to ensure that initial errors were captured early in the process. This validation consists of a number of tests which ensured that expected fields had been completed and that totals within the data return summed consistently. A short table provided forces with a high-level summary of figures to compare against those recorded on their HR systems.

The data return template also included instructions and guidance for those completing the template to ensure that numbers were being reported consistently between forces. Many of these were underpinned by the Home Office Annual Data Requirement (ADR) reporting approach providing a long established, formal way of ensuring consistency.

Before submitting the data to the NPCC, forces followed their own checks and sign off processes. Within 10 working days of the previous month, data returns were submitted to the NPCC via regional leads who compared figures with those from the previous month and identified any errors or emerging issues. The data returns were then sent to a central NPCC programme team who ensured that all validation checks had been passed, logging any issues raised with forces.

Once all 43 returns had been received, they were submitted to the Home Office by the NPCC. The police workforce statistics team within the Home Office compiled these into a single dataset used in the production of the quarterly statistics. Upon compiling this data, the Home Office performed a number of completeness checks to ensure data had been compiled correctly. A snapshot of the data was then returned to the NPCC to ensure overall totals matched between the 2 organisations. The Home Office also conducted its own checks to ensure breakdowns by protected characteristics totalled consistently and high-level variance checks to identify any unusual changes. Figures from the Home Office database were also shared internally with the minister and senior stakeholders on a monthly basis to track progress.

The Home Office published a statistical bulletin on a quarterly basis in January, April, July, and October each year with the first release in April 2020 and the final release in July 2023. The aim is that each bulletin provided provisional data for the most recent quarter, and finalised data for previous quarters. For March and September data, the Home Office also conducts checks against data collected as a part of the Annual Police Workforce Census and ADR collections (which are used in the production of the Police Workforce bi-annually statistics) to ensure numbers are consistent between publications. The Home Office, NPCC and the 43 territorial police forces maintain a close working relationship to ensure issues within the data can be resolved effectively throughout this process.

Colleagues in the NPCC, and policy officials from the Police Uplift Programme have advanced access to provisional management information, from the NPCC, on the Police Officer Uplift. While this management information feeds into the final ‘Police officer uplift’ statistical publication, they are labelled as provisional until the data has been thoroughly quality assured by Home Office statisticians and released. Statistics in their final form are not shared outside of the production team until the 24-hour pre-release period.

Figure 1: Flow chart of process

Annex A: Functions frameworks and frontline definitions

Police Objective Analysis (POA)

Table F4 of the data tables accompanying this publication provides definitions of the POA function framework as well as a list of front line and non-front line functions.

Annex B: Police workforce Data Standards

The Data Standards for which data on protected characteristics should be collected are:

Ethnicity:

White:

• English / Welsh / Scottish / Northern Irish / British
• Irish
• Gypsy or Irish Traveller
• Roma
• any other white background

Mixed / multiple ethnic groups:

• white and black Caribbean
• white and black African
• white and Asian
• any other mixed / multiple ethnic background

Asian / Asian British:

• Indian
• Pakistani
• Bangladeshi
• Chinese
• any other Asian background

Black / African / Caribbean / black British:

• African
• Caribbean
• any other black / African / Caribbean background

Other ethnic group:

• Arab
• any other ethnic group

Prefer not to say

Unknown

Age:

• under 26
• 26-40
• 41-55
• over 55

Religion or belief:

• no religion
• Christian (including Church of England, Catholic, Protestant and all other Christian denominations)
• Buddhist
• Hindu
• Jewish
• Muslim
• Pagan
• Sikh
• any other religion and belief
• prefer not to say
• unknown

Disability:

• yes
• no
• prefer not to say
• unknown

Sexual orientation:

• bisexual
• gay or lesbian
• heterosexual or straight
• other sexual orientation
• prefer not to say
• unknown

Gender:

• woman
• man
• non-binary
• prefer to self-describe
• prefer not to say
• unknown

Sex:

• male
• female

Gender reassignment:

• yes
• no
• prefer not to say
• unknown

Annex C: Key stages in the production of the police workforce statistical release

A. Preparatory work

Annual Data Requirement (ADR) process (during the 12 months prior to the data period):

• consultation with forces and stakeholders; all stakeholders complete a questionnaire to justify the retention (or otherwise) of each of their series
• requests for changes or additions to the ADR considered by the ADR committee (which weighs up the benefits against administrative burden)
• ADR committee decisions for inclusion in the final ADR for submission for Home Secretary’s approval

Review of IT systems (during the 12 months prior to the data period):

• incorporate amendments, additions, and withdrawals
• any case for IT work incurring costs to be justified and approved by budget manager

Issue statistical returns, covering letter and notes for guidance to police forces (around the start of the data period).

Agree and pre-announce the provisional date of publication of the statistical bulletin on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) publication hub (around 9 to 12 months prior to publication).

Review content of the statistical bulletin and other regular outputs (around 6 months prior to publication) and agree findings with stakeholders. Any substantial reduction in content of statistical release would require a consultation with users.

Review and update project plan for the new financial year (around 6 months prior to publication):

• include all the milestones in this framework, plus deadlines and measures of criticality (for example, a traffic light system)
• timings to fit in with staffing levels, pressures and the relative priorities of each series
• timings also to fit in with National Statistics pre-announced months of publication (with no series to be published more than 12 months after the data period) and policy demands

B. Data input and quality assurance

Police forces’ submission of returns within deadline:

• data collection section deals with force queries on completion of return
• output team deals with all other queries about notes for guidance, definitions, release practice, recording practice
• data collection section logs and ensures that returns are correctly input electronically

Chase late and incomplete returns after deadline for completion, by the data collection section.

Receipt and input of late returns. Estimates are sometimes entered for missing data or if a police force cannot provide figures comparable with the previous period (because of a gap in data recording, for example). This is a last resort, and the Home Office will first try to enforce the mandatory nature of the returns. There have been no recent examples of headline police workforce figures having been estimated.

Validation and variation checks and taking up issues with forces. These checks are a combination of automated error checks and analytical checks from data extracts.

The automated variation checks for police workforce statistics have a threshold of + or - 0.25% between the current and previous year for values over 100, and a sliding scale between + or - 0.35% and + or - 0.5% for values between 10 and 100.

Validation checks are mainly cross references between different police workforce returns. For example, the total of workforce breakdowns by ethnicity, age and length in service must match the main workforce totals.

Receipt and input of revised returns following validation check, and satisfactory reasons or revisions provided following variation checks.

Reconciliation exercises (where appropriate). A reconciliation exercise applies when figures from one collection need to be checked with those from another collection. The figures do not have to match but the differences need to be properly explained. In past years, we have accepted small differences between the total of the breakdown by police function and the overall total, but due to the increased importance of the functions collection in inspections of police performance, these 2 totals are now precisely matched.

Production of complete validated dataset according to required standards.

Final checks to ensure data of publishable standard before data confirmation exercise (see below).

C. Preparation for publication

Prepare detailed publication schedule (at least 3 months before publication), containing all specific tasks, milestones and staff allocated to them.

Agree and pre-announce finalised day of publication (around 1 to 3 months before publication).

Data confirmation exercise. All police forces are sent the figures for its force that will appear in the publication and asked to provide written confirmation. This is to reduce further the risk of incorrect figures being published, and supports the Home Office in any disagreement with a police force over the figures published for that force.

Receipt and input of revised data where appropriate following the data confirmation exercise.

Produce dataset for use in publication.

Prepare draft of tables, charts and commentary.

Carry out quality assurance checks on dataset, tables, charts and commentary.

Documents prepared for HTML web pages.

The commentary, tables, charts and key findings are circulated 24 hours before publication to a nominated list of people (including ministers and press office) as shown on pre-release access list.

Meet with Home Office colleagues on 24-hour list to discuss content and handling issues.

Publication.

D. Follow-up work

Wash-up meeting on process of publication. Agree actions for next year and lessons learned.

Published dataset to be used for Parliamentary Questions, Freedom of Information and other enquiries (until following publication).