Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to model the level of police officer (a) attrition and (b) recruitment required to (i) maintain and (ii) increase overall frontline police numbers in the next three years.

The Home Office publishes data on police officer attrition as part of the Police Workforce Statistics, England and Wales. Attrition varies by force and in the year ending March 2024, 9,080 FTE police officers left the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales (excluding transfers), a decrease of 112 (or 1.2%) on the previous year.

It is for Chief Constables and directly elected PCCs, and Mayors with PCC functions to put in place robust workforce plans to deliver sufficient recruitment to replace officers leaving the service to ensure officer numbers can be maintained. Through the Police Funding Settlement for 2025/26, a total of up to £376.8 million has been allocated to support the maintenance of police officer numbers in England and Wales in 2025-26. This is in addition to £200m which has been made available in 2025/26 to kick start the growth in neighbourhood policing personnel. By the end of this parliament there will be 13,000 more neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales, including up to 3000 additional neighbourhood officers by the end of March 2026.