Officers with Special Catergory Delclaration

Your request details

Autism is a disability under the Equality Act 2010 with disability being a protected characteristic.

I should be grateful if you would confirm:

1 The total number of serving police officers in your force area.

2 The total number of serving police officers in your force area living with autism.

3 The total number of police constable applicants in your force area since 1 January 2020 declaring that they are living with autism.

4 The total number of police constable applicants recruited in your force area since 1 January 2020 declaring that they are living with autism.

5 The total number of serving police officers in your force area who are living with autism and have been diagnosed since recruitment.

Response

I approached our HR & Learning department with your request. An analyst has provided the following:

Question 1
We had 3029 Officers as at 31st January 2026

Questions 2 - 5
Our current system records a disability marker when an individual declares this to the force. The declaration can be made at application, pre-employment, or during employment. The marker does not provide further breakdown to specify the disability declared.

As such, there is no process to identify the number of officers with autism in force. Our response is, therefore, No Information Held.