Stately

Home Office · Police workforce, England and Wales

Police officers (full-time equivalent, excluding long-term absence)

Year ending March 2026 Final

142,273officers (FTE)

Police officers (full-time equivalent, excluding long-term absence) were 142,273 officers (FTE) at 31 March 2026, down 0.6% (806) from 143,079 at 31 March 2025.

▼ 0.6% · −806 against Year ending March 2025 (year on year)

  1. Home Office snapshot
  2. Year ending March 2026
  3. published 22 July 2026
  4. Table S1
  5. row “2026-03-31”
  6. column “Total officers(FTE)”
  7. cell value 142272.94608

Year ending March 1996 to Year ending March 2026

Police officers (full-time equivalent, excluding long-term absence): Year ending March 1996 to Year ending March 2026ConservativeLabourLabourLabourLabourLabourLabourCoalitionCoalitionConservativeConservativeConservativeLabour050k100k200020102020Year ending March 1996: 124,844 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 1997: 125,051 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 1998: 124,756 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 1999: 123,841 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2000: 121,956 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2001: 123,476 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2002: 127,267 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2003: 131,426 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2004: 137,105 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2005: 139,491 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2006: 139,631 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2007: 139,063 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2008: 138,585 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2009: 140,630 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2010: 140,661 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2011: 136,051 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2012: 130,826 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2013: 126,278 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2014: 124,685 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2015: 123,832 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2016: 120,664 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2017: 119,700 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2018: 119,068 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2019: 120,070 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2020: 126,031 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2021: 132,431 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2022: 137,260 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2023: 144,296 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2024: 144,557 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2025: 143,079 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026Year ending March 2026: 142,273 officers (FTE) · published 22 July 2026
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

What this measures

Full-time equivalent police officers in England and Wales as at 31 March on the basis used before 2003, excluding officers on career breaks or parental leave of more than 28 days, from 31 March 1996.

What this doesn’t measure

Officers on long-term career breaks or parental leave, which the current headline series includes; the two series differ by a few thousand officers.

Important caveat

Figures are full-time equivalents as at 31 March for the 43 territorial police forces of England and Wales, excluding British Transport Police, special constables, officers seconded out to central services and those working for police and crime commissioners, and including officers seconded in and officers on long-term absence such as parental leave or career breaks. The supplementary series excludes officers on career breaks or parental leave lasting more than 28 days, which was the basis of the figures published before 2003, and runs from 1996. Individual force figures are occasionally revised in the following year's publication.

Revision history

No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.

Source

Publisher
Home Office
Publication
Police workforce, England and Wales
Release
As at 31 March 2026, published 22 July 2026
Source file
police-workforce-mar26-tables-220726.ods
File SHA-256
03a63dea0f8dd2cb21fa4cae5e940afc8747aae9a3b028e50a724ae1ba80b396
Retrieved
2 September 2026
Sheet
Table_S1
Table
Table S1
Row
2026-03-31
Column
Total officers(FTE)
Cell value
142272.94608
Geography
England and Wales
Unit
officers (FTE)
API
/api/metrics/police_officers_fte_historical · /series · /vintages

Government periods

Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.

Labour 2024–144,557Year ending March 2024142,273Year ending March 2026↓ 1.6%
Conservative 2019–2024120,070Year ending March 2019144,557Year ending March 2024↑ 20.4%
Conservative 2017–2019119,700Year ending March 2017120,070Year ending March 2019↑ 0.3%
Conservative 2015–2017123,832Year ending March 2015119,700Year ending March 2017↓ 3.3%
Coalition 2010–2015140,661Year ending March 2010123,832Year ending March 2015↓ 12.0%
Labour 2005–2010139,491Year ending March 2005140,661Year ending March 2010↑ 0.8%
Labour 2001–2005123,476Year ending March 2001139,491Year ending March 2005↑ 13.0%
Labour 1997–2001125,051Year ending March 1997123,476Year ending March 2001↓ 1.3%

Full comparison with chart

Release
As at 31 March 2026 · publication page
Last updated
22 July 2026
Next release expected
July 2027 (estimated from the usual cadence)