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<p>The Home Office collects and publishes data on the size of the police workforce in England and Wales, broken down by Police Force Area (PFA), on a bi-annual basis in the ‘<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales" target="_blank">Police workforce, England and Wales</a>’ statistical bulletin.</p><p>These data are collected by PFA only, and lower levels of geography, such as London Boroughs are not collected. Data on the number of police officers in the Metropolitan Police Service as at 31 March each year, from 2007 to 2022, can be found in the ‘<a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1093587/open-data-table-police-workforce-270722.ods" target="_blank">Workforce Open Data Table</a>’.</p><p>Data on the number of police officers prior to 2007 can be found in Table S1 of the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1093761/police-workforce-mar22-tables.ods" target="_blank">data tables accompanying the latest ‘Police Workforce’ statistical bulletin</a>. These data are not broken down by PFA or lower levels of geography.</p><p>While the ‘<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales" target="_blank">Police workforce, England and Wales</a>’ statistical bulletin remains the key measure of the size of the police workforce, as part of the Police Officer Uplift Programme, the Home Office publishes a quarterly update on the number of officers (headcount terms only) in England and Wales, also broken down by PFA. Data as at 31 December 2022 are available here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-officer-uplift-statistics" target="_blank">Police Officer uplift statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a>.</p><p>Forces are operationally independent, and the deployment of officers remains an operational decision for Chief Constables.</p> |