Introduction

1.1 In September 2019, the UK Government made a commitment to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales by 31 March 2023, with the aims of reducing crime, protecting communities and improving diversity in policing. To help achieve this, Home Office established the Police Uplift Programme (PUP) – a collaboration between Home Office, National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), College of Policing and police forces. The programme provides funding to all 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales to support the recruitment and training of additional officers: 6,000 in the year ending March 2021; 6,000 in the year ending March 2022; and a final 8,000 in the year ending March 2023. Almost all additional officers are recruited through the uplift programme, with the remainder recruited through local funding.

1.2 Home Office publishes quarterly statistics on progress towards meeting the ‘additional 20,000 officers’ target. The statistics provide information on the recruitment of officers through the uplift programme for all forces as well as information on a range of protected characteristics of new recruits including ethnicity, sex, age, sexual orientation and disability status. Police uplift data are collected monthly from police forces’ Human Resource systems. Home Office also publishes biannual National Statistics on the police workforce, which contain more-detailed information on all types of police workers and long-term trends in police numbers. Whereas the police workforce statistics are presented on both a headcount and full-time equivalent (FTE) basis, the uplift statistics are presented on a headcount basis only, as headcount is the most appropriate way to monitor the recruitment of individuals.

1.3 Home Office’s development of the uplift statistics represents best practice where government makes a manifesto commitment related to the workforce. By producing official statistics on a consistent basis and releasing them in an orderly, transparent way, Home Office is demonstrating trustworthiness, quality and value and supporting public confidence in the statistics and the PUP. Data requirements and information needs were considered from the outset of the programme; from day one there was discussion about how to count the number of officers recruited and how to get information about the programme into the public domain.