Policing minister claims officer numbers at record high
19 April 2023
Police officer numbers will reach the highest levels in history when new figures are announced next week, according to policing minister Chris Philp.
Mr Philp told GMB he was confident that records would be broken when the latest data is published on 26 April.
He said: “There is going to be an announcement next week and I am confident it will show that we will have record numbers of police - more police than we have ever had at any point in the history of England and Wales.
“The previous high point was in March 2010 when there were about 145,000 police officers in England and Wales and I am expectantly confident that when the figures are published next week we will have comfortably exceeded that previous high point.”
West Mercia Police recently announced it had exceeded the uplift recruitment target set by the Home Office in 2019 and now had 2,494 serving officers – the highest number in its history.
Policing minister Chris Philp
West Mercia Police Federation welcomed the news but said more needed to be done to ensure new officers were retained by the Force.
Branch secretary Pete Nightingale said: “We welcome the arrival of the new recruits but have always said recruitment is only half of the story.
“The Force now has to ensure West Mercia Police is an attractive place to work and that means looking after its officers when it comes to pay and conditions, training and career development.
“It also means ensuring they have the correct uniform, equipment and vehicles - the Force will have to invest in its vehicle fleet because it’s no good having extra officers if we do not have enough vehicles to provide the service the public expects.
“We wish all the new recruits well and look forward to working alongside them for many years to come.”
Mr Philp refused to speculate on the precise figure expected to be unveiled next week but insisted the number of officers in England and Wales would be “some margin higher, some thousands higher”.
The minister blamed previous administrations when confronted with evidence that police numbers went down by more than 20,000 between 2010 and 2017 when, according to the Home Office, there were just 121,929 officers.
Mr Philp said: “The reason police officer numbers fell in the years immediately after 2010 - and there were spending constraints in other public services as well - is because the outgoing Labour government left the country essentially bankrupt and George Osborne had to take difficult decisions to put it back in order.
“Since we have managed to get the economy into better shape, we have been able to fund additional police officers to make up for not just those who were unfortunately reduced, but we are going to go beyond that and have more officers than we had in 2010.”
