Statistics on police strength for the 43 police forces of England and Wales and for the British Transport Police are published by the Home Office. The latest bulletin is available online on the Home Office website.
Statistics on police strength for Scotland are available on the Scottish Government website at Crime and Disorder - Police Strength.
For the latest top level statistics on all work related ill health, workplace fatalities and injuries and enforcement in Great Britain see HSE's statistics website.
| Employees | 2005/06 | 2006/07 | 2007/08 | 2008/09 | 2009/10p | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fatal | 1 | - | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Major | 777 | 855 | 842 | 862 | 777 | 4 113 |
| Over 3 day | 2 873 | 3 065 | 2 984 | 2 692 | 2 340 | 10 970 |
| Total | 3 651 | 3 920 | 3 828 | 3 555 | 3 119 | 18 073 |
The overall RIDDOR injury rate (2008/09p) per 100 000 for Police Service employees (SIC 75240) was 1224.8 compared to the 502.2 the all industry rate.
The main kinds of reported major injuries to Police Service employees resulted from slips or trips (25%), physical assaults (22%) and handling (18%) accidents.
Over 50% of these injuries were sustained during foot patrol duties.
In 2009/10p the RIDDOR major injury rate to Police Service employees (SIC 75240) was 217.7 per 100 000 employees compared to the all industry average rate of.97.6 per 100 000 employees.
The top three kinds of accidents causing over-3-day injuries were handling (32%), slips or trips (20%), and physical assaults (18%).
In 2009/10p the RIDDOR over-3-day injury rate was 820.1 per 100 000 employees in Police Services (SIC 75240) work compared to an all industry rate of 357.4.
A random sampling of RIDDOR reports for major and over-3-day injuries coded against handling showed that nearly all the injuries were sustained during offender arrest, custody processing or cell transfer.
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