FOI 802/25

REQUEST

 

The 2021 ONS census data breaks down the ethnicity of towns, cities and districts. But it doesn’t for police force areas.

 

1. Please would you confirm whether you do have an ethnic breakdown of the areas you serve?
2. If so, would you be able to provide an excel sheet of the data?

 

You are obliged to provide the Home Office of an ethnic breakdown of your force rank-by-rank. Unfortunately, the Home Office amalgamates all the data. The latest data is for 31 March 2024. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-workforce-england-and-wales-31-march-2024/police-workforce-england-and-wales-31-march-2024. 

 

3. Please would you provide the figures [ethnicity rank-by-rank] for fiscal years [31 March] for the following years: 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024? I am also going ask for 31 March 2025, and I’m not certain you can use exemption sec 22 because you don’t appear to publish your data. Since you have the data, this should not be an exemption under section 12. To help you further, if you have fewer than five in the senior ranks [ACC, DCC and CC] please use an asterix [*] so you do not breach section 40 of the FOIA.

 

In April 2023, the government at that time said it had met its pledge to increase police numbers by 20,000. This was part of its 2019 manifesto. This was the so-called “uplift”.

 

Please provide the following:

 

4. the total number of new officers recruited in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. This could either be fiscal year or annual year i.e., 31 March or 31 December of each year, respectively.

 

5. an ethnic breakdown of those numbers as you recorded them for the corresponding years – 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

 

6. how many officers left your force during 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024?

 

 

7. an ethnic breakdown of those numbers as you recorded them for the corresponding years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

 

RESPONSE

 

Question 1

 

We do not have an ethnic breakdown of the areas we serve. To confirm the county boroughs covered by South Wales Police are as follows:

 

Cardiff and Vale BCU (Basic Command Unit)

• Vale of Glamorgan
• Cardiff

 

Mid Glamorgan BCU

• Bridgend
• Merthyr Tydfil
• Rhondda Cynon Taff

 

Swansea & Neath Port Talbot BCU

• Neath Port Talbot
• Swansea

 

Question 2

 

Not applicable

 

Question 3

 

As this is available in the public domain, we are therefore not obliged to provide this information as the following exemption applies:  

 

Section 21 – Information Accessible by Other Means 

 

This is an absolute, class-based exemption which means that a public authority is not required to consider the public interest in disclosure.  

 

Under Section 16, the duty to provide advice and assistance, please see the below link:

 

Police workforce open data tables - GOV.UK

Question 4

 

For this part of your request, we have consulted with our HR (Human Resources) Department who have provided the following information.

 

Total number of new officers recruited
* Does not include Transferees or Re-joiners*
Financial Year
	2018/ 2019	2019/ 2020	2020/ 2021	2021/ 2022	2022/ 2023	2023/ 2024
Asian / Asian British	4	4	2	9	7	2
Black / African / Caribbean / Black British	1	0	1	2	1	1
Mixed / Multiple Ethnic Groups	5	3	4	8	8	5
Other Ethnic Group	0	0	2	4	2	0
Prefer Not To Say	0	0	2	3	4	0
White	145	139	239	228	344	209
Not Stated	0	1	0	0	0	0
Total	155	147	250	254	366	217
Question 5
Total number of officer leavers
*Includes retirements, resignations and any other reason for leaving*
Financial Year
	2018/ 2019	2019/ 2020	2020/ 2021	2021/ 2022	2022/ 2023	2023/ 2024
Asian / Asian British	2	0	1	1	5	4
Black / African / Caribbean / Black British	1	0	0	1	0	0
Mixed / Multiple Ethnic Groups	4	6	1	2	2	2
Other Ethnic Group	0	0	0	1	2	3
Prefer Not To Say	0	0	4	7	8	11
White	125	163	118	180	169	168
Not Stated	0	2	0		0	0
Total	132	171	124	192	186	188