About us
Read on to find out about the various Home Office departments that look after the police.
The UK police force is a modern, responsive institution responsible for building safer and more secure communities for us all. The Home Office is responsible for policing in England and Wales and the Scottish Executive are responsible for policing in Scotland.
There are 43 police forces in England and Wales employing over 228,000 personnel. This includes over 140,500 police officers, nearly 75,000 police staff and over 13,400 Police Community Support Officers.
The police service also makes use of volunteer police officers known as Special Constables. There are currently in excess of 14,000 Special Constables in England and Wales. For exact figures, see Police Service Strength England and Wales, 31 March 2007 (new window).
Within the Home Office, a number of police units have been established to support the police and pursue a variety of crime reduction initiatives. In this section you'll find out more about the work these units do in helping the police make society safer.
Explore this section:
Policing Policy & Operations Directorate
This directorate provides a range of policy support and sponsors organisations such as the Criminal Records Bureau, the Serious Organised Crime Agency, the National Policing Improvement Agency which help the police service tackle major national orpeational challenges.
Police & Crime Standards Directorate
This directorate aims to maintain standards of excellence in policing and in initiatives that strive to ensure community safety.
Police Reform & Resources Directorate
This directorate is responsible for shaping future police reform with key partners in the Association of Chief Police Officers, and the Association of Police Authorities andensuring that policy makes effective use of the resources available to meet the challenges it faces.
