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Is the government on course to recruit 13,000 neighbourhood police officers?published at 12:32 British Summer Time
Phil Leake
Data journalist
The number of neighbourhood police officers and community support officers in England and Wales increased by just 214 in the year to March 2025, according to Home Office figures, external published this morning.
There are 17,175 officers in neighbourhood roles, up from 16,961 last year.
The government has pledged to increase the neighbourhood police force by 13,000 officers by the end of the Parliament in 2029.
Funding for this began in April, with the prime minister announcing a target of recruiting 3,000 officers in the first year, by March 2026.
Today’s data confirms the size of the neighbourhood police force was smaller than previously thought.
The number was originally estimated to be 19,634 last July, before a data validation exercise uncovered errors.
The exercise required all police forces to verify their previously published workforce data and 33 out of 43 revised down their figures.
As a result, the neighbourhood police force across England and Wales shrank by 14% to 16,961 in 2024.
Some forces had overestimated their neighbourhood officers by a significant amount, with numbers in Gloucestershire and the West Midlands dropping by more than half.
Forces attributed errors to outdated HR systems, operational differences and the misclassification of classroom-based student officers.
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