What is the ratio of police officers per head of population? – The Saturday Briefing

Q: A friend of mine is adamant that there are more police officers per head of population in the UK than there have ever been.

I find this very difficult to believe as the population is growing and there have been cutbacks in the police force.

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Please could you tell me the ratio of police officers per head of population now, five years ago and 10 years ago.

Stuart Bentley, by email 

A: I don’t know where your friend gets their information from but according to government figures the number of police officers and the total number of people employed in the police workforce in England and Wales both peaked in 2010 and have been declining ever since.

At the end of March 2017 there were 123,142 police officers among a total police workforce of 198,684.

In 2012, the figures were 134,101 police officers in a total workforce of 220,067 and in 2007 the number of police officers was 141,892.

Since the population has been increasing, the number of police officers per 100,000 population has dropped from 262 to 210 over the past 10 years. 

Q: Can you tell me where our lesser black-backed gulls and herring gulls have gone?

Do they fly south for the winter?

What do they do for food?

E Skinner, Birmingham 

A: I am assured that our lesser black-backed gulls increasingly tend to stay in Britain over the winter, although some still migrate to Africa.

Overall numbers here however tend to increase over winter as the natives are joined by Icelandic and Scandinavian birds that have flown south.

Herring gulls eat almost anything, including fish, crabs, insects, small mammals and rubbish.

Lesser black-backed gulls eat worms, insects, birds’ eggs, nestlings, fish and small mammals and in winter they also scavenge on rubbish tips.

Q: How much money has the UK spent so far on Brexit?

John O’Brien Perth, Scotland 

A: Disentangling Brexit costs from general costs of government is nigh on impossible but I can tell you the referendum alone is estimated to have cost £142.4million, while the cost of setting up the two specifically Brexit-oriented government outfits – David Davis’s Department for Exiting the EU and Liam Fox’s Department for International Trade – is incurring staff costs of about £65million.

With 500 or so extra civil servants working on Brexit this is likely to be an annual cost until we leave. 

Q: I often hear on Classic FM a traditional anthem sung at the Queen’s Coronation.

In part of it men sing in unison, “Vivat, vivat, Regina Elizabetha”.

These last two words have three then five syllables. At Charles’ Coronation how will “…Rex Charles” be fitted into the music with only one syllable each?

David Howlett, Rainham, Kent 

A: You say that it’s a “traditional anthem” but this is one tradition that is made to be amended.

The words “Vivat, vivat Rex” (long live the king) were first introduced for the coronation anthem of Edward II in 1308.

Since then the music and words have been updated and modified for subsequent monarchs, including the addition of “vivat Regina” when a king and queen are both being crowned.

At the coronation of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1902, the composer CHH Parry introduced a special setting of the anthem with the boys of Westminster Choir shouting, “Vivat Regina Alexandra, Vivat Rex Edwardus” three times.

It was Parry’s music that was modified for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953. 

Q: Is it true that Kenyans can be jailed for four years simply for carrying a plastic bag in public?

Would this ban also apply to unknowing tourists?

Chris Schuman, Reading 

A: Kenya was reported at the end of August to have brought in a law banning single-use plastic bags with penalties of up to four years in jail or fines of more than £30,000.

Such penalties however are designed for those who manufacture and sell plastic bags rather than ordinary users. Visitors will however be told to leave their plastic bags, including those containing duty free items, at the airport.

The law has been brought in after years of debate to counter the increasing impact of plastic bags on the environment, particularly in the oceans.

As one Kenyan environmentalist said: “If nothing is done, by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the sea.”

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