Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he plans to take steps to increase the number of police officers in (a) County Durham and (b) Darlington.

The Government has delivered its manifesto commitment to deliver 20,000 additional officers. At the end of March 2023, we had the highest number of officers on record in England and Wales, with 149,566 officers in post surpassing the previous peak of 146,030 officers in post in March 2010 (the latest uplift data can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-officer-uplift-final-position-as-at-march-2023/police-officer-uplift-final-position-as-at-march-2023).

Durham Police recruited 239 additional uplift officers against a total three-year allocation of 225 officers. On 31 March 2023, there were 1,379 police officers in Durham, a total growth of 241 additional officers against the baseline (1,138) at the start of the Police Uplift Programme.

We expect forces to maintain officer numbers at uplift levels.

Decisions on how officers are deployed are a local operational matter for Chief Constables working with locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners.