Police numbers fall

4.52.23pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 30th Jan 2007

The number of police officers in England and Wales has fallen for the first time since March 2000, the Home Office revealed. The total dropped by 173 from the end of March last year to 141,873 at the end of September.

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Nick Clegg MP said "These police cuts are a sign of things to come. Home Office cutbacks have already led to reductions in the promised number of Community Support Officers and a withdrawal of new services like a non-emergency phone number. Now the funding squeeze is hitting front-line police themselves. The Government should get its priorities right and spend more money on the police officers we all want, instead of wasting billions on an unnecessary and illiberal ID cards scheme."