Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many police officers in England and Wales are currently serving on secondment abroad.

The Home Office collects and publishes information on the police workforce on a biannual basis. The latest statistical releases are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales

The annual “as at March” release contains information on the ethnicity of officers by rank. The rank of ‘Chief Officer’ includes all ranks above Chief Superintendent, and the latest information shows that as at 31 March 2019, 2.6% of Chief Officers were BAME.

Data on promotions can also be found in the “as at March” edition of this release. However, as the rank of ‘Chief Officer’ includes all ranks above Chief Superintendent, promotions within Chief Officer ranks are not collected and we are therefore unable to say how many Chief Constables were promoted from the rank of Deputy Chief Constable or equivalent.

The releases also contain information on how many officers are on secondment, however, data are not collected on the location of those secondments.

Information on whether officers are university graduates, or whether they served at the same rank in another force are not collected.