FOI 508/25

REQUEST

Please can you provide:

1. The number of officers who were medically retired from your police force due to a physical disability or illness occurring whilst in service (service and non-service attributable) between 1965 and FY 2007/8, after which we are able to obtain the information from https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-workforce-open-data-tables.

Please can you then provide the following data for at least the last 20 calendar years (broken down annually). If you are unable to provide it this far back, please provide it as far back as your records do go and state this:

1. The number of police officers claiming an Injury On Duty Award, split by year and banding of award. If possible, please provide details regarding the physical injuries or illnesses or categories within which they were claimed for.

1. The number of serving police officers registered as having a disability under the Equality Act 2010, split by year (whether as a result of their service in the police force or otherwise, following the person’s departure/retirement). Please also provide details regarding the number of personnel among those registered as physically disabled who have reported that their disability/condition limits their day-to-day activities.

1. The number of serving and retired officers who have reported to have/registered as having the following physical disabilities and illnesses, whether occurring whilst in service (service or nonservice attributable), or following the person’s departure/retirement from the police service. If you do not hold data against these specific conditions, please break them down into the relevant illnesses/disabilities/categories which you are able to:

• Acquired Brain Injury
• Amputees
• Arthritis
• Chronic back/neck problems
• Degenerative diseases that affect mobility
• Ehler Danlos Syndrome
• MND
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Muscular Dystrophy
• Parkinson’s Disease
• Spinal Cord Injuries

RESPONSE

We consulted with our HR department who have provided the below response to your request.

Questions 1 & 2

Please note in relation to question 1 we only hold this data as far back as 1984.

Question 3

Due to a change in our systems we can only provide the data from March 2012. For 2018 we can only provide the September data for that year as there was a change to the systems in 2018 and we don’t have the information until September of that year. The data is force strength which excludes those on career break and seconded out:

Please note our reports only bring out that ‘yes’ they have declared a disability we do not report on the type of disability or whether they are able to perform day to day duties.

Question 4

Please see below figures for officers who have declared a disability - we are only able to provide the number of officers as our reports do not specify the reason.

Officers as at 30^th April, 2024:

Please note that the above figures include officers currently on career break and those seconded out of Force.