The 2026 police workforce statistics are out. The situation is dire and it’s apparent that the officer Uplift is well and truly over.
As another in my ‘stats series’ interest pieces, I’ve reviewed the situation and comb over the Home Office police strength data to March 2026 for you once again (as I do each year). I outline the key headlines below, and I’ll be talking through key highlights in an upcoming free podcast.
In 2026, there’s just over 179,000 police officers across the UK. This is the only place anywhere that brings together for you a full UK police workforce perspective, and the only place too that you’ll find a long-term (since 1947!) view of officer strength for England and Wales.
Read on for a full update, which I hope you find interesting and helpful. If you’re short on time here’s the top 10 highlights:
- The UK as a whole has 179,249 police officers.
- England & Wales forces have 145,886 police officer FTE, down another 566 (-0.4%) from 2025.
- Reduction in officers driven by record leavers from the Met Police.
- Scotland and PSNI officer strength remains low, but not quite as bad as 2025.
- Officers per 100,000 population is decreasing, as UK populations continue to increase.
- There’s been an explosion in the number of officers dismissed or suspended from forces, culminating in a record for 2026.
- Forces have more people working in Professional Standards than ever before.
- Specials and PCSOs are down again, continuing their long term reductions, while Volunteers made a marginal recovery.
- The increased ‘Neighbourhood Policing officers’ being reported is just a big statistical deception.
- Sickness is high and increasing, especially long-term and mental health related absence.
Please get in touch with any comments or your own thoughts on these important workforce figures. I will cover more aspects of the police workforce data in a follow-up blog, including promotions, rank comparisons, service length, diversity, and police staff strength.
Let’s first get into the headlines. Note that I’ll be focusing on Full Time Equivalent (FTE) unless otherwise stated.
UK Total Police Officers: 179,249
How many police officers are there across the UK in 2026? The answer is just over 179,000.
Officer strength in England and Wales forces reduced by 566 (-0.4%). This was overwhelmingly driven by a massive reduction in of 1,800 FTE (-5.4%) in the Metropolitan Police, the biggest single year exodus the Met Police has faced.
Interestingly, the provincial forces (excluding the Met) actually increased officer strength by around 1,000 since 2025. Those in the Welsh forces increased by nearly 100 cops.
In Scotland, officer strength reduced by over 100 FTE to near its record low at 16,430. And after PSNI hit its record low last year, their strength has recovered slightly to 6,367. The BTP, NCA, MOD Police, CNC, and others then make up the remaining 10,000 or so sworn officers across the UK.
Note that PSNI count theirs as headcount not FTE. Also I’ve refined the NCA count to just their ‘sworn officers’ (last year I reported their total workforce strength because they keep their workforce breakdowns fairly well hidden).
I also keep track of officer strength in An Garda Síochána for Ireland. Garda strength grew slightly by nearly 100, and so remains near record highs at 14,293.
Focusing back on the England and Wales situation, I’ve added recent years figures to my historical changes graphic below. This 80-year record is the longest consistent record of officer workforce strength you’ll find anywhere.
But as officer numbers struggle, populations are continuing to grow, as I outline below. That means every officer is serving more people, a contributing factor to increased officer workloads…
In England and Wales forces, I compare the long-term changes in police officer strength against the population below. It’s apparent that the recent stagnation in officer strength, following the short 2019-2023 ‘Uplift’ burst, has allowed the ever-increasing and fast growing population growth to overtake policing’s capacity once again.
Explosion in Officers Dismissed and Suspended
There’s been an explosion in disciplinary action since 2023. This coincides with the 2023 Baroness Casey Review on standards and culture, which focused on the Met Police but had UK-wide ramifications for policing.
A record 459 officers (FTE) were dismissed across England and Wales in the year to March 2026. 166 of these were dismissed from the Met Police, a new record for London. A further 32 officers were dismissed from BTP.
A hidden but larger aspect of the disciplinary situation for officers is the volume of suspensions. Lengthy conduct investigations are a long-term cause of concern for most cops. It’s a key reason why the IOPC (and to a lesser extent forces’ own Professional Standards departments) have a bad reputation among officers.
“Too many members are left in a state of limbo for far too long, with huge uncertainty hanging over them, because of protracted misconduct investigations.” – Phil Jones, Staffs Police Fed Chair
The Home Office reports suspensions as one reason for long-term (over 28 days) absence, then counts a snapshot of those as at the end of March each year. The counts therefore represent just a portion of those suspended throughout the year. Even so, the figures are comparable over years and show a dramatic increase, indicating far more disciplinary action along with the record dismissals.
And it’s not just the Met Police driving the numbers, albeit they also had a record number of officers suspended (178 FTE). The ramifications of disciplinary proceedings are ballooning everywhere. But is it any wonder, when forces’ Professional Standards functions across the provincial forces have more than doubled in the last decade?
While we’re talking about officers by function, let’s explore the progress of the government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee for “extra” officers…
The Great ‘Neighbourhood Officer’ Deception
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” – Benjamin Disraeli
The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee launched by the government in December 2024 commits to putting 13,000 additional officers (compared to a March 2025 baseline) into neighbourhood policing roles across England and Wales by 2029. There is an interim target for Spring 2026 for an extra 3,000 officers, backed by £200 million of funding. These ‘officers’ can consist of regulars, PCSOs, and/or Special Constables.
We now have the interim Spring 2026 data. As we know, the workforce of Police Officers, PCSOs, and Specials have all declined in volume. But the government through this Home Office publication is claiming success. How is that possible? Statistics.
PCSOs exist and were introduced to provide a visible, accessible policing presence in neighbourhoods. Overall PCSOs numbers have continued their torrid decline I reported last year to another new record low for the past 20 years, now down to just 7,259 FTE (last year 7,315). However, because forces have recategorised and moved PCSOs between functions (for fear of losing their part of the £200 million funding), an increase of over 300 “extra” PCSOs in neighbourhoods is being claimed.
Thanks to statistics, down is up and up is down!
You might have noticed Special Constables have decreased by 324 to another record low, now standing at just 5,196 individuals. Interestingly, these officers are not being included in the count for this Spring 2026 progress report, because… statistics.
Which leaves regular Police Officers. We know the total officer FTE has declined by 566 since the baseline period. In the broad ‘Local Policing’ function category, there’s almost 2,500 officers fewer than 2025, continuing the divestment from local policing I reported last year.
Yet those in a ‘Neighbourhood Policing’ function, a subset of ‘Local Policing’, have apparently increased by over 3,100 FTE. Plus another 350 cops in training earmarked for a future Neighbourhood role for good measure.
That means it’s success all round and despite your lying eyes, we actually have an “additional” 3,814 officers. Target achieved. £200 million well spent. Thanks again, statistics!
Where did those recategorised and/or actually reposted officers come from you might ask? And “Was it from Response?” you might guess in an educated manner.
Well as it happens, police officer FTE in the ‘Incident Response’ sub-category reduced by 3,450, far exceeding changes in officer numbers seen in any other function. The next highest change was for those in ‘Specialist Community Liaison’ at -1,842 (also within ‘Local Policing’).
Below I’ve tracked the police officer workforce within this ‘Local Policing’ broad function to show the longer-term changes, placing this “increase in neighbourhood officers” in context. For example, we now have almost as many police officers in a neighbourhood function as there was before Uplift…
Sickness Absence Remains High and Increasing…
The workforce statistics report that 2.3% of officers are on long-term sickness absence, amounting to nearly 3,500 FTE. This is just the long-term, over 28 days absence, and only a snapshot as at the end of March 2026. Far more absences and sickness will have occurred throughout the year, plus more short- and medium-term.
Below shows the growth in officers on long-term sick since 2024, for both the total for England and Wales and just the Met Police portion.
The total sickness for UK industry lost for an entire year is just over 2% according to the ONS, so for the long-term snapshot to already exceed this is not good. The Public Sector historically has higher sickness than Private Sector, standing at 3% for last year.
Unfortunately, police forces don’t tend to routinely publish sickness rates equalised over the year as the standardised way to gauge sickness absence rates. But we know it’s even higher than the national average, thanks to the Telegraph’s report on its FOI request on the subject. The equivalent sickness rates for forces is 5% for a year, having increased consistently since 2019.
We also know that the biggest problem for sickness absence in policing by far relates to mental health, which is at epidemic proportions. This isn’t so predominant in other sectors as reported by ONS, for which it represents only a small proportion of sickness absence cases. Police wellbeing and staff surveys, such as the annual Oscar Kilo wellbeing report, demonstrate exactly where the pressures are.
“Police officers are exposed to hundreds of traumatic incidents every year and every incident leaves its mark. With assaults on officers at record levels and the job getting more dangerous, these figures are not surprising.” – Police Federation spokesperson (as reported in the Telegraph)
Aspiring police leaders (like you!) would do well to understand the good, bad and the ugly of police wellbeing, considering you’re putting yourself forward to be part of the solution. It’s something promotion boards are increasingly asking questions on, as I explain in my recent in-depth podcast (Season 6, Episode 20) on wellbeing. Search my wellbeing category on this blog for more free information on leading wellbeing in policing.
Just to emphasise the scale of the problem, 5% sickness absence for officers equates to around 7,300 FTE police officers. That’s over twice the strength of the comparably large (and my local force where I served) force, Devon and Cornwall Police. Then of course add in the other absence types like maternity/paternity, career breaks, and suspensions, forces will be operating with nearly 10% less than their on-paper officer strength.
Mass Officer Exodus Continues…
As I reported on record leavers last year, the mass officer exodus continues. Although 1,000 more officers joined the provincial forces this year, for the second year in a row more officers left policing than joined. This caused the net -566 reduction in overall strength.
Excluding transferees between forces, 9,240 FTE officers left in the year to 2026. This signifies a dreadful new record high for forces across England and Wales. This gave a turnover rate of 6.3%, the fifth consecutive year of 6.0% or more turnover. An additional 196 officers left BTP.
Notable forces had record high police officer FTE leavers in the year to March 2026 since records began 20 years ago. They are as follows…
- A record 2,155 FTE left the Metropolitan Police, 500 more than its 20-year average.
- The South West Region experienced heavy losses too. Devon and Cornwall Police saw 281 FTE leave the force (its 20-year average is 172). 113 left Dorset Police (average 81) and 109 left Gloucestershire (average 68).
- In the Eastern Region, Essex Police had 234 leavers (average 171) and Norfolk 136 (average 90).
- 244 FTE officers left Northumbria Police (average 190).
- Welsh forces overall had record leavers at 517 FTE, driven by records in South Wales at 256 (average 158) and North Wales at 95 leavers (average 73).
- West Midlands Police had 566 leavers, 200 more than their annual average.
- Finally, North Yorkshire Police had a record 137 officers leave, against an average of just 87.
The key reason remains voluntary resignations, at over half of officer wastage. Combined with the ballooning trend for dismissals, these factors now far outweigh retirements which (until recent years) used to be the dominant factor by far for officer turnover.
Supporting Your Police Leadership Ambitions
What are your thoughts on these figures from the Home Office workforce statistics? Please feel free to comment with your views.
As an aspiring police leader, it’s important to be aware of such trends, especially for the more strategic ranks of Inspector and beyond. How is your force faring? Consider this example forward-facing police promotion interview question (especially if you’re in the Met Police):
“As a newly promoted Inspector, what will you do to improve wellbeing and keep your teams motivated during this retention crisis?”
I hope you’ve found this free police promotion and leadership material helpful. See my other blogs, listen to my free podcasts, or watch my free YouTube videos for more. I even offer a free 30-minute coaching call if you’re unsure where to start your promotion preparation or have any concerns about your own force process. Join 1000’s of cops from around the UK, Ireland and beyond who have achieved success with me.
In due course, I’ll publish a follow-up ‘part 2’ blog on the wider police workforce data, including analysis of ranks, promotions, service length, diversity, and the civilian staff profile. Until then, take care and stay safe.
Kind Regards, Steve
Seeking police promotion? Want a MASSIVE head start right now and a focus on what matters? Hit the ground running with my great value digital promotion toolkits, and/or my market-leading Police Promotion Masterclass, seminars and CVF explainers. There’s nothing else like it to effectively prepare you for success and level the playing field of promotion. My timeless methods translate to all UK promotion processes. Any questions? Get in touch for a free call or to arrange more personal coaching support tailored to your specific force process. Tune in to my extensive podcast for regular powerful leadership CPD and promotion insights.
