Written question asked by Alan Milburn (Labour) on Thursday, 17 July 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 21 July 2008. It was answered by Tony McNulty (Labour) on Monday, 1 September 2008 on behalf of the Home Office.

Police: Manpower

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the change in police numbers in each basic command unit over (a) the last year and (b) the last five years.

Answer: The number of police officers in each basic command unit has been centrally collected since 2002-03, and the number of police community support officers has been centrally collected since 2006-07; and this information has been published in the supplementary tables of the annual ““Police Service Strength, England and Wales”” statistical bulletin.Previous years supplementary tables are available online from the following links and are in the Library of the House.31 March 2007"http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs07/hosb1307add_tab.xls"31 March 2006"http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/hosb1306add_tab.xls"31 March 2005"http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hosb1205add_tab.xls"31 March 2004"http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs04/hosb1304tabs.xls"31 March 2003"http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/hosb1103tabs.xls"Over the year to 31 March 2007 there was an increase of 369 in the total number of police officers, and over the five years to 31 March 2007 there was an increase of 9,383 officers.

Secondary information