FOI 315-2025 / Mar 2025 / Recruitment

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 315-2025

I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 12^th March 2025 as follows:

Could you please provide data on:

a.) how many people applied to join the force

b.) how many of these applications were successful

For each of the following years: 2024, 2019, 2014.

Could you please also break down the figures month by month?

Please find the Warwickshire Police response set out below.

When reviewing the information, please note that, prior to 2020 Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police were in a strategic alliance.  During that time records were managed by West Mercia and, due to the alliance coming to an end, Warwickshire Police do not hold the requested information for years 2014 and 2019.  Information I am able to provide for 2024 is set out below.

Qa response: During 2024 Warwickshire Police received 1001 applications to join the force via student officer routes IPLDP/PCEP, DC DHEP or PCDA.

Please note that the business area has advised that a breakdown by month is not held in a readily retrievable format and that, in order to attempt to provide information in relation to this element of the request, it would be necessary to manually review each application to ascertain a date.  However, even if this were possible within the fees limit, the system shows the month an application was started, and not the month the application was actually submitted, so information would not necessarily be representative of month of application in any event.  Therefore, for the reasons set out, the work involved in providing a response you your request would be above the amount to which we are legally required to respond ie, the work involved in locating, retrieving and recording the information requested for exceeds the cost threshold (£450), which equates to 18 hours work at a standard rate of £25 per hour, as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.

In accordance with Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for this element of your request.

In accordance with Section 16 of the Act, I have a duty to provide advice and assistance, where possible, to refine your request; however, due to the volume of records that would need to be manually reviewed, I am unable to suggest a way to do this within the fees limit. 

Qb response:

*Please note that some candidates who applied in 2024 chose to defer to 2025 intakes; therefore, they may be successful with their application in 2025.

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

[email protected]