FOI 628-2025 / June 2025 / Ethnicity data
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 628-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 13th June 2024 as follows:
The 2021 ONS census data breaks down the ethnicity of towns, cities and districts. But it doesn’t for police force areas.
Q1. Please would you confirm whether you do have an ethnic breakdown of the areas you serve?
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.
Q2. 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 asterisk [*] 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:
Q3. 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.
An ethnic breakdown of those numbers as you recorded them for the corresponding years – 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Q4. How many officers left your force during 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024?
An ethnic breakdown of those numbers as you recorded them for the corresponding years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Please find the Warwickshire police response set out below.
Q1 response: Warwickshire Police do not hold this information other than via the census.
Q2, Q3 and Q4 response: The requested information for years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, as of 31st March, is available within the public domain and is therefore exempt from disclosure by virtue of Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act – ‘Information Reasonably Accessible by Other Means’. To assist I have provided the relevant link below to the Home Office Police workforce data, which is broken down by police force area:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-workforce-open-data-tables#documents
Please note that there are separate data tables for ethnicity, joiners, and leavers. All data tables can be downloaded and filtered by year, specific Police Force, worker type and rank.
Information as of 31st March 2025 is held, however it is exempt from disclosure by virtue of the following exemption:
Section 22(1) – Information Intended for Future Publication
Section 22 exempts information from disclosure which is intended for future publication and allows for circumstances when it is reasonable and correct for public authorities to delay the provision of information until it is made generally available through publication.
I can advise that the Home Office publish accredited official statistics on Police workforce including ethnicity, on a biannual basis. The next publication, covering the period up to 31st March 2025, is scheduled for release in July 2025.
Section 22 is a qualified exemption and so there is a requirement to carry out a Public Interest Test to consider whether the public interest in maintaining the exemption is greater than the public interest in disclosing the requested information.
Public Interest Test
Section 22(1) - Factors favouring disclosure
Disclosure would support the fundamental purpose of the Freedom of Information Act, which is to be more open and transparent. In addition, any information which would allow for more accurate public debate would be a positive factor for disclosure.
Section 22(1) - Factors favouring non-disclosure
The timetable for publication allows for the review and validation of the information to be included in the statistics, and to release this information ahead of schedule could compromise the accuracy of the data.
The information will be published in due course and to respond to this request at this time, which would require the information to be retrieved and collated, would involve a disproportionate use of resources.
Balance Test
For a public interest test, issues that favour disclosure need to be measured against issues that favour non-disclosure.
Whilst the value of transparency, accountability and contributing to the accuracy of public debate is recognised, there is no further tangible benefit to the public interest in providing the requested information before the publication date.
The information being sought is published on a biannual basis, at force level, and has a confirmed release date of July 2025. The period between each release allows for the verification of data and ensures that the published statistics are accurate. The use of public money to locate, retrieve and collate the requested information for one specific FOI request, when the information is shortly due for publication, is not an effective use of public money and would not be in the public’s interest.
On balance, it is considered that the public interest in providing the information is outweighed by the public interest in maintaining the exemption until the official publication date, when the information can be obtained from the below link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-workforce-open-data-tables#documents
Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is as accurate as possible.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB