Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the current level of police recruitment in England and Wales.

The Government is committed to increasing the number of police officers by 20,000 by March 2023 and good progress is being made to increase the numbers of officers across all forces in England and Wales.

As part of the Police Uplift, data on police recruitment is now published quarterly. The latest data to 31 December 2020, shows that 6,620 additional officers had been recruited in England and Wales as part of the police uplift meaning that we are on track to deliver this commitment.

Since November 2019 (when data collection began), 14,585 officers have joined police forces. 6,620 were recruited specifically as part of the uplift programme, with others joining forces through locally funded recruitment and to replace leavers.

As at 31 December 2020 provisional data show that there were 135,248 officers in the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, 5% above the baseline taking into account those recruited through the uplift programme and through other routes since the start of the campaign.

The Police Officer uplift statistics can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-officer-uplift-statistics