---

Police

Answer

The Home Office collects and publishes data annually on the size and composition of the police workforce in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales.

Information on the length of service of police officers in post and the length of service of police officer leavers, can be found in Tables JL5 and JL6 respectively of the data tables accompanying the statistical release.

Table 1, below, shows the length of service of police officers in post, as at 31 March 2024.

Table 1: Length of service of police officers in post, headcount basis, as at 31 March 2024, England and Wales (excluding British Transport Police)

Length of service group	Police officers (headcount)
Less than 5 years	53,108
5 years to less than 10 years	25,626
10 years to less than 15 years	12,315
15 years to less than 20 years	23,492
20 years to less than 25 years	24,271
25 years to less than 30 years	10,116
30 years or over	841
Total	149,769

The Home Office does not publish more granular breakdowns of length of service.

Additional information on the number of new recruits to the police service each year, as well as information on leavers and the length of service of those leavers, is also available in the statistical publication linked above.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL2831

Session

2024-26

Subjects

Police

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk