Official Statistics

Police officer uplift, England and Wales, quarterly update to 31 December 2022

Updated 27 January 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: pressoffice@homeoffice.gov.uk

Telephone: 0300 123 3535

Public enquiries: policingstatistics@homeoffice.gov.uk

Privacy information notice

Introduction

This release contains information on progress towards the recruitment of an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales by March 2023.

145,658 officers provisional headcount as at 31 December 2022, England and Wales

+16,753 (of +20,000 by March 2023) provisional uplift figure as at 31 December 2022, England and Wales

Key findings

• provisional data show that there were 145,658 officers in the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales as at 31 December 2022

• this was an increase of 17,225 officers on the adjusted baseline (see glossary) of 128,433

Of these additional officers:

• 16,753 have been recruited from funding for the Police Uplift Programme and contributed towards the target of 20,000 by March 2023 (13% above the baseline, with 84% of the target recruited)
• a further 472 additional officers have been recruited through other funding streams (such as from local council tax precept)
• of the additional uplift officers, 478 had been deployed to Regional and Organised Crime Units (ROCUs)
• since April 2020, more than 4 in 10 new recruits (42.6%) were female and 11.5% (who stated their ethnicity) identified as ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities)
• 259,511 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

Over the latest quarter (between October and December 2022), there was a net increase of 1,420 uplift officers compared with September 2022. The majority of this increase was seen in the month of October and a smaller increase was seen in November, followed by a slight decline in December. This monthly decline was driven by reduced police officer recruitment in December 2022, where new police officer joiner levels dipped below the total number of officers leaving the workforce (including retirees) that month. This follows a similar trend to that seen in December 2021 and December 2020. Officer recruitment levels vary by month, reflecting the different recruitment cycles of individual forces as well as seasonal patterns. The majority of forces do not plan for new officer intakes at the end of the calendar year (coinciding with the Christmas period).

Funding to support the recruitment of 20,000 additional officers has been allocated in each of the 3 years of the programme, with an initial milestone of 6,000 additional officers by March 2021, a further 6,000 by March 2022, and the remaining 8,000 (to bring the total to 20,000) by March 2023. As at the last milestone, 31 March 2022, forces exceeded the 12,000 target by 1,566 nationally. The focus is now on achieving the full 20,000 additional officers by 31 March 2023. Further information can be found in chapter 3 of this publication.

1. Introduction

The current government made a manifesto commitment to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales by 31 March 2023. This release provides information on progress towards the recruitment of these officers and data are provided for each 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 December 2022 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 chapter 3.3.

In addition, since July 2021, statistics are included in Annex A of this release to provide 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.

1.1 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 are sourced from police forces’ HR systems and are collected on a monthly basis from each of the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales.

Data are published on a quarterly basis in April, July, October, and January, each year, for the duration of this recruitment drive. The aim is that each bulletin provides provisional data for the most recent quarter, and finalised data for previous quarters. The next publication will be released in April 2023, covering data to the end of March 2023; this will show provisionally whether the manifesto commitment to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales by March 2023 has been met. The final publication in this statistical series will be released in July 2023, alongside the biannual Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin, and will cover finalised data to March 2023. Following that, this statistical series on 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.

Table 1.1 shows revisions made since the last quarterly release due to 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.

Table 1.1: Summary of monthly headcount revisions

Month	Headcount published in ‘quarter to September 2022’ bulletin	Updated headcount	Difference (headcount)
Aug-22	142,977	142,972	-5
Sep-22	144,356	144,346	-10

1.2 Additional data sources

The data in this release can be found in the ‘Police officer uplift, England and Wales, December 2022’ 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. Future editions in this series will be available on the statistical collection page ‘Police officer uplift statistics’.

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 2021 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 on 31 August 2022.

1.3 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 announcement to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales was made in September 2019, we are not using the police workforce statistics as at 30 September 2019 (published on 30 January 2020) as the initial baseline. This is because most 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 are expected 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. This has decreased by 20 officers since the previous publication due to an in-year adjustment for Cleveland.

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).

The allocation of the final 8,000 additional officers was announced to be recruited in the year ending 31 March 2023. This allocation of 8,000 officers includes 425 officers to SOC. As in year 2 of the programme, funding for tackling SOC is 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 police officers to each police force. Forces that receive a larger proportion of funding through the police funding formula have therefore been 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 has a baseline figure and allocation for recruitment by March 2023 (Table B1). Police forces are 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 can be met. Detailed information on police officer leavers are published in the biannual Police workforce, England and Wales statistical bulletin.

Additional recruitment through local funds

Forces may also choose to recruit 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 are recruited first, and then further recruits count towards locally funded officers. Table U3 contains information on locally funded officers.

3. Officer uplift to 31 December 2022

As at 31 December 2022, provisional data show that there were 145,658 officers in the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales. This is an increase of 17,225 officers against the adjusted baseline (128,433). Of these additional officers, 16,753 can be attributed to the uplift programme (a 13% increase on the adjusted baseline), and the remaining 472 through local funding (see chapter 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. As at 31 December 2022, of the 16,753 additional officers recruited in the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, 478 have been deployed to ROCUs.

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 145,658 as at 31 December 2022 (up from 144,346 as at 30 September 2022). Officer numbers have increased in 33 of the 39 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. This is due to more leavers than joiners at the end of the calendar year and start of the financial year and in July 2022. Further information on how recruitment levels can vary throughout the year is included in chapter 3.1.

Figure 3.1: Number of police officers¹, 31 March 2019 to 31 December 2022, England and Wales

Source: Table U1

Notes:

1. Data for the most recent quarter (October to December 2022) are provisional and subject to change in future releases of this statistics series, when they will be finalised.

3.1 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	145,714	128,433	+16,795	+486	+17,281
Dec-22	145,658	128,433	+16,753	+472	+17,225

Source: Table U1, Table U2, Table U3

A combined officer allocation of 12,000 was given to police forces for recruitment in the first 2 years of the programme (up to the year ending 31 March 2022), and forces exceeded that target by 1,566 nationally (13,566 additional officers as at 31 March 2022). The remaining 8,000 officers (to bring the total to 20,000) have been allocated to forces for recruitment in the year ending March 2023. As at 31 December 2022, a total of 16,753 additional police officers have been recruited from funding for the Police Uplift Programme, and contribute towards the target of 20,000 by March 2023. This is an increase of 1,420 additional officers on the number recorded at the end of the previous quarter (15,333).

The number of officers in each police force by month can vary depending on fluctuations in recruitment and retention. Some forces run the majority of their recruitment at a particular point in the year as it may be more efficient to do so, whereas other forces may choose to recruit more consistently and continuously throughout the year. These decisions will vary depending on the size and composition of the force and the volume of new officers they are seeking to recruit. Therefore, while this release reports on the position of each force at the end of each month, it should not be used to compare the progress of one force against another nor should it be used to project future recruitment profiles nationally. The key milestones in the 3-year programme are 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).

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

3.2 All new recruits

Not all new recruits will be counted as progress towards uplift, as forces must maintain their baseline by recruiting to backfill any leavers. The number of new recruits 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.

Since November 2019, there have been 41,076 new recruits to the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, with 3,305 of these joining in the last quarter (October to December 2022). Officer recruitment levels vary by month, reflecting the different recruitment cycles of individual forces. Levels of recruitment in the first quarter of the financial year can be low, reflecting a seasonal trend of relatively fewer joiners in April. 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: 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.

3.3 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 December 2022, 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 December 2022). 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 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.

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 December 2022, the sex of all officers 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 (47.3% complete as at 31 December 2022).

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, the latest of which covers the period to 31 March 2022.

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 December 2022, 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 December 2022).

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, the latest of which covers the period to 31 March 2022.

Census data

Previous releases in this publication series compared the protected characteristics of the police workforce to the ONS 2011 Census population estimates. 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% of the general population in England and Wales identified as ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities). This proportion has increased, the 2021 Census estimates 18.3% of the population identify as ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities), an increase of 4.3% 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 December 2022, 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, the latest of which covers the period to 31 March 2022.

Diversity of those in post as at 31 December 2022, England and Wales

As at 31 December 2022, in England and Wales there were 51,107 female officers in post, accounting for 35.1% of officers, an increase on last quarter (34.9%). 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 December 2022, 11,691 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: 3.7% 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 December 2022, 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	129,863	91.7	81.7
Black	1,839	1.3	4.0
Asian	5,286	3.7	9.3
Mixed	3,622	2.6	2.9
Other	944	0.7	2.1
Prefer not to say	2,488	-	-
Unknown	1,616	-	-

Source: 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 17.1% as such, an improvement on last quarter (0.2%). This was followed by West Midlands Police (13.8%), who saw a 0.1% fall when compared with the previous quarter and Bedfordshire Police (10.4%) who saw similar levels when compared with the previous 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% 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 (3.6%) and Mixed (4.2%). West Midlands meanwhile recorded the highest proportion of officers identifying as Asian (8.8%), with MPS recording the second highest (7.2%). 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 December 2022, over half (58.2%) of all police officers were aged 40 or under, with 12.5% of all officers aged 25 and under. Meanwhile, 40% of all officers were between aged 41 and 55 with the remaining 1.8% aged over 55.

Figure 3.3: Number and proportion of police officers, by age group, as at 31 March 2019 and 31 December 2022, England and Wales

Source: 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, 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

Since April 2020 there has been a total of 34,647 new recruits to police forces in England and Wales. Of these, 14,762 were female, making up 42.6% 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, 3,825 new recruits identified as ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities), equating to 11.5%. Breaking this down further 1.6% of new recruits identified as belonging to a Black ethnic group, 5.5% to the Asian ethnic group, 3.5% identified as a Mixed ethnicity, and 0.9% identified as belonging to Other ethnic group. This proportion of 11.5% remained below the representation of such ethnic groups in the general population (18.3% according to 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, 30.7% as Mixed, 13.9% as Black and the remaining 7.9% as Other. By comparison, the 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 December 2022, England and Wales

Source: Table U8

Since April 2020, 95% of all new police officer recruits were aged 40 or under (and 56.5% of new recruits were under 26). Only 0.2% 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.

Counter Terrorism Policing: Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) is made up officers from police forces across the country. They work to protect the public and our national security, by preventing, deterring and investigating terrorist activity.

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 their sexual orientation and disability status (42.8% and 42% respectively as at 31 December 2022), 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 in future quarterly releases.

As described in the main police uplift statistics there were a total of 145,658 officers in post as at 31 December 2022. The below tables show proportions of these officers, where known, by disability status and sexual orientation 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 disability status, England and Wales, as at 31 December 2022

	Percentage (%) of all officers (headcount)
Known	56.3%
of which: Yes	8.6%
of which: No	91.4%
Prefer not to say	1.7%
Unknown	42%

Table A2: Police officers by sexual orientation, England and Wales, as at 31 December 2022

	Percentage (%) of all officers (headcount)
Known	57.2%
of which: Heterosexual/Straight	92.1%
of which: Bisexual	2.9%
of which: Gay/Lesbian	4.8%
of which: Prefer to self-describe	0.2%
Prefer not to say	5.5%
Unknown	37.3%

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

While this release provides a provisional quarterly update on the number of police officers (headcount) 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. The data released in the biannual ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ have been designated as National Statistics, and users are therefore 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 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 (July, October, January, April)
Period covered: Data at the end of the preceding quarter
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 (such as, the Home Office, 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, Police workforce, England and Wales: 30 September 2022, showed that, as at 30 September 2022, the police officer headcount was 144,345 and the FTE was 142,145 – a 1.5% 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. ↩