Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 08:51 pm
Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 08:51 pm
Reading Time: 3 minutesThere has been much debate on Social Media about the success of the Police Uplift Programme, the government scheme to recruit 20,000 extra (now changed to new) Police Officers.
I tried writing to the 43 Forces asking how many recruits had resigned within their first 3 years of service, but that wasn’t terrifically successful, I hadn’t anticipated the number of interpretations of the question that existed, and the answers to it.
The Question
In desperation I wrote to the Home Office and asked them how many officers they had actually recruited to arrive at the December 2021 total of 11,048 out of 20,000.
I note that in the latest update (December 2021) the Police Uplift Programme has resulted in a total of 11,048 new Police Officers. Clearly some will have resigned along the way. Could you please tell me the gross total number of officers recruited under the PUP to provide a net increase of 11,048?
If there is a table available showing individual Forces I would be very grateful, if not a total number for England and Wales will suffice.
Due to my naivety I truly thought there could only be one answer to that question. A number. Imagine my surprise when I received my reply on Tuesday.
Due to the discontent of some parties when the success (or otherwise) of the Police Uplift Programme is debated I have taken the decision to reproduce the Home Office response verbatim and without comment, so the reader can arrive at their own decision. This is their response.
The Response
Thank you for your email of 4 March 2022 in which you ask for “the gross total number of officers recruited under the PUP to provide a net increase of 11,048?”
This information is published quarterly by Police Force Area in Table U4 as part of the ‘Police officer uplift, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin. The latest data tables covering recruitment up to 31 December 2021 can be found at: Police officer uplift, England and Wales, quarterly update to 31 December 2021: data tables.
Since November 2019 when the data collection began for the Police Uplift Programme, there have been 26,255 new police officer recruits to the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales. Please note that Table U4 refers only to new police officer recruits joining the Police Service. Those returning to the police service, such as after a period of absence and transfers from other forces are not included.
The number of new recruits exceeds the number of officers counting towards uplift, as forces must maintain their baseline by recruiting to backfill any leavers and fulfil other recruitment commitments. More information on new recruits and officers counting towards uplift can be found here: Police officer uplift, England and Wales, quarterly update to 31 December 2021 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
If you are dissatisfied with this response you may request an independent internal review of our handling of your request by submitting a complaint within two months to foirequests@homeoffice.gov.uk, quoting reference 68728. If you ask for an internal review, it would be helpful if you could say why you are dissatisfied with the response.
As part of any internal review the Department’s handling of your information request would be reassessed by staff who were not involved in providing you with this response. If you were to remain dissatisfied after an internal review, you would have a right of complaint to the Information Commissioner as established by section 50 of the FOIA.
Yours sincerely
My Thoughts
You will note from their response that they make reference to further officers recruited under the Policing Precept. To help add some context I reproduce those numbers, alongside the PUP stats below. It should be noted that these numbers are ‘rolling totals’, not monthly increments
It is my opinion that the numbers recruited under the Policing Precept don’t really supplement the PUP recruitment by very much, but for the sake of completeness and transparency they are there.
My one and only comment on the figures from the Home Office is that they don’t appear to align with with the stats supplied by National Police Chiefs Council which I previously referenced here
Others, with greater minds than mine, will no doubt explain where I’ve gone wrong, but in the meantime, dear reader, please feel free to make up your own mind and comment below if the urge takes you.
PS, the table at Fig 1 DOES show that recruits have clearly been resigning during training both under PUP and Precept.
