Police: Age

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers in (a) England and (b) London were aged (a) 18 to 25, (b) 26 to 30, (c) 31 to 35, (d) 36 to 40, (e) 41 to 45, (f) 46 to 50, (g) 51 to 55, (h) 56 to 60, (i) 61 to 65 and (j) over 65 years in the last period for which figures are available, broken down by (i) sex and (ii) ethnicity. (175563)

Figures collected by the Home Office on age of officer are broken down by four age groupings and appear in the following table for 31 March 2007. The collection does not extend to gender and ethnicity breakdowns.

*Numbers of police officers*¹ *in post on 31 March 2007 by age group, London and England*
	Age on 31 March 2007
	25 and under	26 to 40	41 to 55	Over 55
London²	2,549	17,305	12,328	215
England	11,060	72,157	52,367	617
¹ Figures for police officers are on a head count basis, which means both full-time and part-time officers are counted individually as one officer. This differs from the main officer count which is on a full-time equivalent basis. The figures include officers on career breaks and maternity/paternity leave. ² Includes officers in both the Metropolitan police and City of London police

Volume 470: debated on Tuesday 8 January 2008