By Charlotte Webster-
The British Government has met its target of 20,000 additional police officers under new rigorous vetting proeeedures.
A total of 20,951 new police officers have been recruited in England and Wales in the past three years, exceeding a government pledge for an additional 20,000 officers in England and Wales by March 2023, according to provisional figures from the Home Office.
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Of the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, 42 have met or exceeded their target for new officers under the Police Uplift Programme. The one exception was the Metropolitan Police Service.
A further 188 additional officers have been recruited through other funding, such as from local council tax precept, the Home Office said.
Provisional data shows there were now 149,572 officers in England and Wales as at March 31, 2023, the highest number since comparable records began.
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This is 3,542 (2.4 per cent) greater than the previous peak of 146,030 officers in post as at March 31, 2010.
The target was met with a sharp jump in headcount in the weeks leading up to the March 31 deadline, which represented the “largest month-on-month increase” since the recruitment programme began, the Home Office said.
“The majority of the increase over the latest quarter was seen in the month of March,” it added, when the headcount of officers recruited towards the uplift increased by 2,407 compared with February 2023.
Since April 2020, more than four in ten new recruits (43.2 per cent) were female. As of last month, there were 53,083 female officers in post in England and Wales, accounting for 35.5 per cent of officers – the highest number and proportion of female officers in post since comparable records began.
By comparison, as at March 31, 2019, before the uplift programme began) 31.7 per cent of officers were female.
Of the new recruits, 11.4 per cent identified as ethnic minorities (not including white minorities). There has been a 43 per cent increase in the number of ethnic minority officers in England and Wales since the start of the recruitment drive, the Home Office said.
As at March 31, 2023, there are now 12,087 officers from an ethnic minority background in England and Wales, representing 8.3 per cent of those who stated their ethnicity – the highest number and proportion of ethnic minority officers in post since comparable records began.
The allocation of 725 additional officers to be deployed to Regional and Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) by March 2023 has also been met.
This includes 30 officers to City of London Police specifically to strengthen the national response to fraud.
Funding for tackling serious and organised crime is shared across the network of ROCUs.
“ROCUs require more experienced police officers and therefore forces will release existing police officers to ROCUs and replace them with the additional officers recruited via the Police Uplift Programme to ensure overall workforce growth,” said the Home Office.
Figures show 274,951 applications to become a police officer have been received since October 2019.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman said she was “delighted” to have met the target of an additional 20,000 officers and described it as “an historic moment for our country”.
She said 24 forces now have “more police officers than they ever had before the programme” and said she was “extremely grateful to police chiefs for leading this drive”.
Speaking on Twitter, Ms Braverman said: “By meeting this milestone there are now around 150,000 police officers in England and Wales. That is more than ever before in the history of policing.
“This is a proud moment for our country.
“Since December 2019, we’ve already seen reductions in the number of murders, the incidents of violence and burglaries.
“With this milestone, we are going further to cut crime and bear down on criminals.
“We also now have more female police officers and more from ethnic minorities than ever before, meaning that the police are more representative of the communities they serve.
“And most importantly, those officers are already working to make our streets safer. Taking dangerous knives off the streets, preventing violence, including against women and girls, and putting a stop to anti-social behaviour that causes misery in our communities.
“The Government are delivering more police, less crime, safer streets and commonsense policing.”
Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak said: “When I stood at the steps of Downing Street six months ago, I made clear that I will do whatever it takes to build a better future for everyone in the UK, with stronger communities and safer streets.
“At the heart of that pledge is recruiting more police officers than at any time in our history, and today we have delivered on that promise.
“Thousands of officers are already out in our communities, tackling crime and keeping the public safe.”
Crime and Policing Minister Chris Philp said: “Not only are we putting more police officers on the streets, we are making sure they have the tools they need to fight crime – and holding them to account to deliver.
“Overall crime, excluding fraud and computer misuse, has halved since 2010 and I thank all the police officers who have contributed to this effort, and welcome those who are going to drive this down even further.”
Gavin Stephens, chair of National Police Chiefs’ Council said: “It is an incredible achievement to have recruited more than 46,000 officers, giving us more than 20,000 additional officers over the last three years. These additional police officers are much welcomed, bringing a breadth of experience, skills and diversity to their communities.
“Those that joined at the start of the programme are now completing training and making a difference every day in forces across England and Wales. It fills me with optimism that so many talented colleagues have joined with a real desire to keep their communities safe and feeling safe.
Stephens said fewer than two in ten candidates make it through “rigorous” selection procedures.
Government figures published on Wednesday showed that workforce numbers in England and Wales had risen by more than 20,000 since 2019, with more than 46,000 people joining the service during that time.
He said that more than 250,000 people had applied to join the service during the recruitment drive, aimed at replacing the officers whose jobs were cut during austerity.
Figures suggested that nearly 1,500 recruits had been offered jobs in the final month before the deadline, but Mr Stephens rejected any accusations of a rush, saying it was the culmination of “four years of very detailed and concerted hard work and effort”.
The former Surrey chief constable said that while new recruits may not have experience in policing, many had joined as a second career and already had useful skills.
“The people that are joining us they may be new to policing, but they’re certainly not inexperienced. There’s a whole range of skills and backgrounds on offer.”
He went on: “You might be new to policing. It doesn’t mean that you’re inexperienced.
“I met some that had come from the military, from service industries, from other public services, from the legal profession, from other positions in academia, a whole range of backgrounds coming into policing and all of those skills are really valuable to us.”
Around 40 per cent of the new recruits are women and 11 per cent are black, Asian or minority ethnic.
The Home Secretary also played down concerns that the Government’s campaign to recruit an extra 20,000 new police officers could see candidates who were “not up to scratch” joining forces.
Suella Braverman insisted there were “extensive” vetting procedures in place amid reports failed applicants were being called back by forces in a bid to hit hiring targets.
Ms Braverman told reporters: “We have a whole programme of work which is about checking the assisting data, reviewing our vetting standards, working with the College of Policing guidance, the inspectorate and police forces individually. Alongside that, I have confidence in the vetting and the recruitment of the new cohorts.
“Our vetting systems are pretty extensive. There are wide-ranging checks that are carried out on any new applicant.
“Financial checks, checks for cautions and convictions, checks for non-criminal sanctions, checks on their relatives and their associates – quite in-depth checks are carried out.
“I think we should be clear about the rigour that’s applied in our recruitment process. It’s not as if we’re accepting everybody and anybody who applies to be a police officer.”
Both the Police Federation and Labour have argued that the recruitment drive does not go far enough because of population growth since 2010.
Mr Stephens said there are now 3,500 more officers than there were in 2010, with 27 forces out of the 43 in England and Wales having record high numbers.
Inspiring
Chief Constable Andy Marsh, chief executive officer of the College of Policing, said it was “inspiring that 20,000 new colleagues have chosen to enter policing and the work they will do to keep communities safe and catch criminals is much needed by colleagues and communities alike”.
He added: “Having met many of these new officers, I am confident in the skills and dedication they bring into the service.
“Despite many challenges, including Covid, in the four years since the programme began, teams from across the college worked tirelessly with others to successfully support uplift.
“Along with the Police Uplift Programme, forces and education providers, we developed a consistent end-to-end recruitment process, as well as a wider range of entry routes to attract and train new officers from across communities in England and Wales.
“Those within policing who worked on uplift should be extraordinarily proud of their role in recruiting so many new officers in the time-frame, and this will undoubtedly help keep the public safe.”
Association of Police and Crime Commissioners chair Marc Jones said: “The clear and consistent commitment by Government to delivering the 20,000 officers through the uplift programme has made a real and lasting difference to policing’s ability to keep our communities safe.
“It is a testament to the hard work of policing both locally and nationally that this additional funding has delivered the officers in just three years. We know this is what the public want to see.”
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