Government reach recruitment targets for police in England and Wales

The government has announced that it has reached its target to recruit 20,000 more police officers in England and Wales.

This brings the number of officers to 3,500 higher than in 2010 after the Conservative and Liberal governments began to cut police numbers.

The increase was announced in the 2019 Conservative 2019 election manifesto and Home Secretary, Suella Braverman said “We have delivered on the promise we made to the British people which means more police on the beat preventing violence, solving burglaries and cracking down on antisocial behaviour.”

However, while the number of officers has increased, the population of England and Wales has grown by around / per cent. It means that the number of officers recruited does not compensate for the increase in population.

Many police officers are also leaving the service. In 2022 8,117 police officers left the force, which is a 20-year high. Half the officers retired as it’s possible to clai9m your pension in your 50s.

It also appears that police officers are less experienced than in 2010. At present a third of all police officers in England and Wales have fewer than five years’ experience. Six years ago it was double the number.

Dame Meg Hillier who leads the Public Accounts Committee said “The danger is if you go up and down with police numbers and then recruit very quickly, you end up with a larger number of more junior officers, without experienced people above them,”