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On Wednesday, the government announced that it reached its target of recruiting 20,000 more police officers by March 2023, and that the current number of police officers in England and Wales is the highest since comparable records began.
While these figures are correct, they don't tell the full story about what’s happening with police officer recruitment, as the recent rise in the number of police officers follows a sharp decline in police numbers between 2010 and 2017.
Police officer numbers can be counted in different ways, but figures for the number of full-time equivalent police officers show that numbers fell from 143,734 in March 2010 to a low of 121,929 in September 2017— a decrease of almost 22,000.
So while the government has fulfilled its 2019 manifesto commitment and the number of police officers is indeed now higher than when the Conservative-led coalition took office in 2010, the recent increase through the Police Uplift Programme is broadly equivalent to the number of officers that were lost between 2010 and 2017.
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WE'RE HIRING
Will Moy, who has led our team of fact checkers and campaigners since 2010, will stand down later this year.
Full Fact’s cross-party board of trustees will oversee recruitment and the appointment of our next CEO.
Full details on the role and how to apply.
“It has been a privilege to work with and lead this team for the last 12 years.“
“We are advertising for my replacement publicly and we want to attract a diverse range of applicants. It’s a brilliant job—endlessly interesting, important, and with a great team—so please do share the role with anyone you think might be interested in applying.”
“I am sorry to be leaving Full Fact, but I’m excited to be joining another organisation committed to evidence-based public debate. The Campbell Collaboration is an international social science research network of staff and volunteers, and I will be joining as CEO later this year. By reviewing and bringing together all the available evidence, Campbell Collaboration systematic reviews and evidence and gap maps help make it possible to tackle the biggest societal challenges we face today.”
Will Moy—Chief executive
Full Fact
Read more from Will on our blog.
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FACT CHECK
During the most recent junior doctors’ strike in England, we saw a number of different claims made about how their pay demands compare to recent salary increases for MPs.
The claims quoted a range of different figures and dates, but generally suggested that the pay increase MPs have seen in recent years is either equivalent to or more generous than the pay uplift junior doctors are now asking for.
Some of the claims are misleading because they directly compare a figure which factors in inflation with one that does not, while in some cases the figures themselves do not appear to be accurate.
In cash terms, between 2008/09 and 2021/22 MPs’ salaries increased by 29%, while the BMA says junior doctors’ basic pay rose by 17%. But if you factor in Retail Price Index (RPI) inflation, both groups have had a real-terms pay cut, though MPs have had a proportionally smaller one than junior doctors.
It’s important to note that our analysis relates only to junior doctors’ basic pay and MPs’ basic annual salaries. Junior doctors often receive extra earnings, for example for working evenings and weekends, and MPs can also often earn extra on top of their basic salary, for example because they have a ministerial or parliamentary role or have a second job.
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FACT CHECK
We’ve been asked by several of our readers about claims that the UK’s emergency alert system, which was tested last Sunday, was “created by” or “subcontracted to” Infosys, the Indian multinational IT company founded by Rishi Sunak’s father-in-law.
This is not true. A government spokesperson told Full Fact: “This is completely untrue - there are no connections with Infosys in the running of the Emergency Alerts system.”
A spokesperson for Infosys also said: “Infosys has not been involved, directly or indirectly, in the creation of the UK government emergency alert system.”
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MORE FACT CHECKS
Also this week...
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All the best,
Team Full Fact
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