Police Constables (Hansard, 17 January 2001)

§ Mr. Charles Clarke

[holding answer 15 January 2001]: The table sets out overall constable numbers since 1990 which includes officers on secondment to the national crime squad, the national criminal intelligence service and central services. Data on the number of special constables have been centrally collected on a regular basis only from September 1995.

We have no projections from forces on the number of constables they are likely to have at the end of March 2001. As part of the bidding process for funding from the crime fighting fund (CFF), forces were asked to provide their projections of appointments on probation (ie new recruits to the force and the police service) and for their projections of wastage (all ranks) excluding transfers between forces. These show that forces hope to recruit about 7,000 new recruits in the current year. This number includes the officers to be funded by the CFF. All of these will enter the service in the rank of constable. But, as we do not have a breakdown of projected wastage by rank, no projection can be made of total constable numbers on 31 March 2001.

Assuming forces' current projections of recruitment and wastage hold good, police numbers (all ranks) should reach 126,000 by 31 March 2001.

The special constabulary is a volunteer service and no projections on its likely strength have been sought.

Constable and special constable numbers since 1990
Year (as at 31 March)	Constables	Special constables
1990	95,167	n/a
1991	95,609	n/a
1992	95,662	n/a
1993	96,591	n/a
1994	97,010	n/a
1995	97,107	n/a
1996	97,672	19,775
1997	98,132	19,874

278W

Constable and special constable numbers since 1990
Year (as at 31 March)	Constables	Special constables
1998	98,312	18,256
1999	98,520	16,484
2000	95,917	14,347
30 September 2000	96,499	13,528