To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many commissioned police officers there were in England in (a) 2007-08 and (b) 1996-97. (265310)

Information on police numbers is published annually in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin series ‘Police Service Strength, England and Wales’. The bulletins are available in the Library of the House, and can be downloaded from the publications link within the Research Development and Statistics directorate website located at:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pubsstatistical.html

There were 132,313 full-time equivalent police officers in the 39 forces in England as at 31 March 2008, compared to 118,455 as at 31 March 1997.