What happened to policing between 2010 and 2024?

Author

Matt Ashby

Published

8 Jul 2024

Last week saw the end of 14 years of Conservative-led government in the UK. So how has policing changed in that time? These eight charts tell some of that story.

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A bar chart showing government spending on policing each year from 2010 to 2024, in 2023 prices. After taking into account inflation, police funding per person in England and Wales in 2024 is around 9% lower than in 2010. Funding dropped sharply while David Cameron was prime minister, stayed lower under Theresa May, and has increased since (although not to the level seen in 2010). If police funding had been maintained at 2010 levels, spending today would be about £1.0bn higher than it is.

Source: Institute for Government.

A line chart with three lines showing the number of police officers, police staff and community support officers (PCSOs) each year from 2010 to 2023, relative to the number that were employed in 2010 and after adjusting for increases in the population of England and Wales. There are about 23,000 fewer police workers now than there were in 2010. The number of PCSOs in particular has dropped by more than half, and has continued to drop even as the number of police officers has increased by about 20,000 between 2019 and 2022.

Source: Home Office

Three bar charts showing pay for police officers after initial training, after 5 years' service and after 10 years' service, for each year from 2010 to 2024. Taking inflation into account, pay for police officers at all levels of seniority has fallen substantially, with the lowest-paid officers (those who have just completed their initial training) having lost the most pay. A newly qualified police officer in 2024 earns about £8,800 less (at 2024 prices) than they would have done in 2010, while an officer with 5 years' experience earns about £5,400 less and an officer with 10 years' experience earns about £6,700 less.

Source: author tracking of police pay from each year’s pay announcements.

Three time-series charts showing the rate of violent crimes in England and Wales per 1,000 people aged 16+ in each year from 2010 to 2024. The charts show that violence without injury, with minor injury and with serious injury have all decreased consistently over that period. The data are from the Crime Survey for England and Wales, which estimates that all types of non-sexual violence have been decreasing since 1993. These estimates are *not* affected by in police recording practices or by the likelihood of victims reporting crimes to the police.

Source: Office for National Statistics

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Time-series chart showing how the total severity of police-recorded crime per officer changed in each police force in England and Wales between 2010 and 2023. This is a measure of the police workload generated by responding to an investigating crime. Many types of crime have fallen since 2010, but a higher proportion of all crimes have been recorded by police. Combined with cuts to police-officer numbers, these extra recorded crimes mean the workload of responding to and investigating crime _per officer available to deal with that work_ is 62% higher across England and Wales now than it was in 2010.

Source: Office for National Statistics

A time-series chart showing the proportion of crimes in England and Wales that were solved each year from 2010 to 2023. The proportion of solved crimes (i.e. crimes where there was enough evidence to send the suspect to court) has dropped substantially: in 2023 only 7% of crimes were solved, compared to 28% in 2010.

Source: Home Office, before 2015 and since 2015

A time-series chart showing the proportion of people who rate their local police as excellent, good, fair, poor or very poor for each year from 2010 to 2023. Since 2016 the proportion of people saying their local police are excellent or good has fallen, while the proportion saying local police are fair, poor or very poor has been rising.

Souce: Office for National Statistics

A time-series chart showing the proportion of people who say they see police on patrol once a week or more, less than once a week, or never, for each year from 2010 to 2023. Between 2010 and 2023, the proportion of people who say they see police on patrol once a week or more has dropped from 39% to 14%, while the proportion of people who say they never see officers on patrol has almost doubled to 50%. Notably, although the number of police officers in England and Wales increased by 20,000 between 2019 and 2022, there has been no increase in the visibility of police patrols.

Souce: Office for National Statistics

Notes

Population data for England and Wales and for local authority districts (which can be used to create estimates for police-force areas) are mid-year estimates from the Office for National Statistics. Inflation data are from the Bank of England.