Lord Birt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Birt on 2016-01-14.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 30 November 2015 (HL3832), what assessment they have made of Eurostat’s figures for comparative police numbers in EU countries; whether they accept that police numbers in England and Wales per head of population are at 64 percent of the average of France, Germany, Italy, and Spain; and whether they consider police numbers in England and Wales to be at an appropriate level.
Lord Bates
Comparisons of police numbers between different EU countries should be made with extreme caution. This is because different countries have different legal systems, police responsibilities vary considerably, and there are differences in definitions used.
Decisions on the size and composition of the police workforce are operational matters for Chief Officers working with their Police and Crime Commissioners and taking into account local priorities. What matters is how officers are deployed, not how many of them there are. All forces need to look at the way frontline services are delivered to ensure that the quality of service provided is maintained or improved.
