While this release provides a provisional quarterly update on the number of police officers (headcount) in England and Wales, it is not intended to replace the long running statistical series ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’, which also contains information on other police workers. This release reports on whether the 20,000 additional officers have been met as at 31 March 2023. This is the penultimate (second to last) release in this statistical series. The final publication in this statistical series will be released in July 2023, alongside the biannual ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, and will cover finalised data to March 2023. Following that, this statistical series on the police officer uplift will be retired, and reporting on the size and composition of the police workforce will continue on a biannual basis in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin The data released in the biannual ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ has been labelled as National Statistics, and users are therefore encouraged to use the data to analyse long-term trends in police numbers. The biannual release provides a snapshot of officer numbers on both a full-time equivalent (FTE) and headcount basis as at 31 March and 30 September each year, as well as more detailed breakdowns on joiners and leavers. Police workforce, England and Wales Frequency of release: Biannually (July and January)
Period covered: Data at 31 March and 30 September each year
Workforce covered: Police forces in England and Wales, British Transport Police, and National Crime Agency
Measurement: FTE and headcount Police officer uplift, England and Wales Frequency of release: Quarterly (July, October, January, April)
Period covered: Data at the end of the preceding quarter
Workforce covered: Police forces in England and Wales
Measurement: Headcount The statistics cover all the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales. In line with the established statistical series used for measuring the size and composition of the police workforce (‘Police workforce, England and Wales’), figures quoted in this bulletin include those on career breaks or other forms of long term absence, as well as those seconded into police forces from other constabularies. It excludes those seconded out from forces to central services (such as the Home Office, the National Crime Agency). Headcount versus full-time equivalent Our headline workforce statistics (published biannually) report on officers on both a full-time equivalent (FTE) and headcount basis. However, given that headcount is the most appropriate way to measure and track the recruitment processes which relate to individuals (for example, applications, vetting, assessment centres), this release reports on officers on a headcount basis only. There is a relatively small difference between the headcount and FTE figures. The most recently published police workforce statistics, Police workforce, England and Wales: 30 September 2022, showed that, as at 30 September 2022, the police officer headcount was 144,345 and the FTE was 142,145 (a 1.5% difference). For new recruits, the difference in the 2 measures is likely to be even smaller as most new joiners tend to start on a full-time basis.
This means that the statistics meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, impartiality, quality and public value, and are fully compliant with the Code of Practice for Statistics.  2