Police: Resignations
(asked on 9th September 2025) - View Source
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 17 July (HL9084), how many police officers left the force in the year ending 31 March 2025, broken down by how many served (1) for less than 12 months, (2) between 12 months and 5 years, (3) between 5 years and 10 years, and (4) over 10 years.
The Home Office collects and publishes data annually on the number of police officer leavers in the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin.
Information on the length of service of leavers is available in table JL6 of the data tables accompanying the publication.
Table 1: Police officer leavers (headcount) by length of service in the year ending 31 March 2025, England and Wales.
Length of service group | Headcount of officer leavers | Proportion (%) of all leavers |
Less than 1 year | 930 | 10.3% |
1 to less than 2 years | 1,011 | 11.2% |
2 to less than 3 years | 637 | 7.1% |
3 to less than 4 years | 446 | 5.0% |
4 to less than 5 years | 407 | 4.5% |
5 to less than 10 years | 839 | 9.3% |
10 to less than 15 years | 372 | 4.1% |
15 to less than 20 years | 760 | 8.5% |
20 to less than 25 years | 1,235 | 13.7% |
25 to less than 30 years | 1,202 | 13.4% |
30 years or over | 1,148 | 12.8% |
Total | 8,987 | 100.0% |
Note:
- Excludes transfers to another force
The retention of all officers, both new recruits and experienced officers remain essential to increasing public confidence in policing. This is why forces should be using strong evidence-based strategies to support retention and progression of existing officers, as well as continuing to recruit new officers using high quality recruitment processes that maintain standards.