Number of police officers falls by more than 1,000 in a year, figures show
The fall in the number of officers in England and Wales has been driven almost entirely by a sharp drop at the Metropolitan Police.
The number of police officers in England and Wales has dropped by more than 1,300 in 12 months and is now 2,000 below the peak reached in 2024, new figures show.
A total of 145,550 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers were in post across the 43 territorial police forces at the end of September 2025, a drop of 1,318 (0.9%) on the previous year.
This was also a decrease of 2,195 FTE officers, or 1.5%, from the record-high number of 147,745 at the end of March 2024.
The Home Office figures published on Wednesday show the net change in the number of FTE officers and masks wide variation across the country.
The picture is mixed, with 24 police forces seeing a year-on-year rise in officers, adding up to a combined increase of 457.
But this was offset by the remaining 19 forces, which all saw a year-on-year fall that adds up to a total drop of 1,775, which produced the overall net decrease in officers of 1,318.
The net fall in the number of FTE officers in England and Wales has been driven almost entirely by a sharp drop at the Metropolitan Police, the country’s largest police force.
Of the 19 forces that reported a net fall in police officers in the year to September 2025, 18 saw a drop of between one (Bedfordshire) and 43 (Devon & Cornwall).
By contrast, the Met reported a net fall of 1,461 officers, or a decrease of 4.3%.
The figures come days after the Home Secretary revealed plans billed as the biggest changes to policing in the service’s history.
Under reforms published in the Government’s white paper on Monday, ministers will seek to “significantly” reduce the number of police forces in England and Wales by the end of the next parliament, with the new, larger forces divided into local areas corresponding with cities, towns and boroughs.
An existing funding scheme called the officer maintenance grant will be scrapped to favour putting more police in community roles, after ministers said the grant encouraged forces to employ uniformed officers to meet headcount targets, but then put them in administrative roles such as IT or human resources.
Meanwhile, live facial recognition vans will also be rolled out nationwide and artificial intelligence will be overseen by a new national centre, Police.AI, in a bid to free up officers from paper work and ensure responsible use of the technology.
Ministers have already committed to recruiting 13,000 more neighbourhood policing officers by 2029, with 3,000 recruits expected to be in post by spring this year.
Home Office data shows 2,383 new police and community support officers (FTE) were in neighbourhood posts by the end of September last year.
A Home Office spokesman said: “These figures show almost 2,400 more neighbourhood officers across the country in the past six months – getting police out on the streets, where the public want them.
“The last government left 12,000 warranted officers stuck behind desks in support roles.
“This Government is restoring neighbourhood policing by putting 13,000 more neighbourhood police on the streets this parliament, and has increased police funding by nearly £2 billion.”
