Officer numbers up by 162 in a year

28 July 2022

Nottinghamshire Police recruited 162 new officers in the 12 months to March 2022, according to the latest figures from the Home Office.

The newly-released data shows the Force had 2,344 officers on 31 March this year compared with 2,182 on the same date the year before.

The 7.4 per cent increase is much higher than the national figure of 4 per cent which equates to 4,927 extra officers and brings the total number of serving officers across England and Wales to 140,228.

Home Office officials said the latest figures revealed the second highest number of recruits in a year since records began, just behind the year ending March 2020 when there were 12,883 new officers.

The recruitment drive is part of the  Government’s Police Uplift Programme which aims to bring in 20,000 new officers by next March.

Nottinghamshire Police Federation chair Simon Riley welcomed the increase in officers.

He said: “The service we provide to the people of Nottinghamshire depends on the Force having the appropriate number of officers so we are pleased with the success of our recruitment drive.

“Even after the uplift there will still be fewer frontline officers than there were a decade ago but at least we now appear to be heading in the right direction.”