An extra 51 police officers will be allocated to Suffolk over the next financial year as part of the government's drive to boost the national workforce by 20,000.

The additional recruits will be on top of an extra 54 officers hired over the last year – in the first of a three-phase £750m Operation Uplift campaign announced in September 2019.

Suffolk Constabulary's workforce of full time equivalent officers was 1,168 when the first phase of national recruitment began in March 2020 – compared to 1,246 in March 2010, when cuts to police resources began as part of government austerity measures, with numbers falling as low as 1,092 by March 2018.

The latest headcount of 1,224 officers puts Suffolk Constabulary still short of numbers recorded in 2010 – but the extra 51 promised over the next year will see numbers restored to levels of a decade ago.

A further two officers will be allocated as Suffolk's contribution to the Eastern Region Specialist Operations Unit.

Figures published on Thursday showed the campaign to recruit 20,000 additional officers over three years remained ahead of schedule, with the 54 officers promised for Suffolk by March already in place as of December.

The government also announced £20m for the second round of the Safer Streets fund, which launched in January last year and was open to police and crime commissioners (PCCs) and local authorities for local crime-cutting interventions in residential areas.

Suffolk was one of only nine areas to miss out on a share of the £25m first round of funding, which had been intended for use to bring communities together and reduce crime in the Maple Park area of Ipswich.

Mr Passmore said he was pleased the force had already recruited the first 54 officers ahead of schedule, adding: “By this time next year, there will be more than 1,300 police officers in Suffolk, which does not take account of any possible increase through the policing element of the council tax precept. This will be a larger police contingent than has been in Suffolk for very many years which is particularly good news."

Suffolk Constabulary is expected to gain a total of 162 extra officers over the three-year Operation Uplift campaign.