Welsh forces to recruit 302 new officers
WALES is to get hundreds of new police officers as part of plans announced by the UK Government.
Boris Johnson promised to recruit 20,000 extra police officers in England and Wales over the next three years when he became Prime Minister in July.
Now it’s been revealed that as part of the first wave of recruitment, Wales’ four police forces will be able to hire 302 police officers.
These will be allocated as follows:
■ South Wales Police: 136 new officers, increasing its officer numbers by 4.6%; ■ North Wales Police: 62 new officers, increasing its officer numbers by 4.3%; ■ Gwent Police: 62 new officers, increasing its officer numbers by 4.7%; and,
■ Dyfed-Powys Police: 42 new officers, increasing its officer numbers by 3.7%.
According to the government’s recruitment website for police officers, the four Welsh police forces will be “recruiting soon”.
Home Secretary Priti Patel set out her vision for policing when she chaired the second meeting of the National Policing Board on Monday.
Ms Patel said: “The public are clear they want to see more police officers on their streets, whether they live in the city or the countryside. This is the people’s priority and it is exactly what the Government is delivering.
“It means more than 302 extra officers right across Wales, helping to cut crime and keep communities safe.”
In the first year of the scheme across England and Wales, the Home Office will provide £750m to support the 43 forces to recruit up to 6,000 new officers.
The force able to recruit the most officers is the Metropolitan Police, which has a first-year recruitment target of 1,369.
All new officers recruited will be in addition to those hired to fill existing vacancies and on top of the extra officers already being recruited because of the £1bn increase in police funding for 2019-20, which includes money from council tax and for serious violence.
John Apter, national chairman of the Police Federation, said: “Investment in policing is long overdue and for the first time we now have the actual number of officers each local force will increase by in the next year.
“These figures have been based on the current funding formula models and while this method is not perfect, I accept it is the only solution available to deliver the numbers quickly in year one.
“We now need to ensure that the formula is revisited for future years to ensure a fairer allocation of officers across all forces, but this is certainly a positive start and will provide a muchneeded boost to my members and the communities they serve.”