Police Officer deployments for Glastonbury
Date of request: 2 February 2026
Reference: 13899196
Request
This request concerns the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset, for festival years 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. I’m seeking aggregate totals and any existing summary records only. I’m not requesting tactics, deployment locations, timings, surveillance methods, or officer level detail.
Scope note (so we don’t do the ‘manual trawl’ dance):
This request is limited to figures you can reasonably retrieve from existing event policing returns, summary/debrief documents, custody/arrest records, and force recording systems. If any item is not held in aggregate form, please confirm it is not held and provide the closest equivalent aggregate metrics you do hold, rather than refusing the request in full.
For each festival year (2022-2025), please provide:
1) Resourcing and plainclothes
a) Total police officer deployments for Glastonbury, expressed as officer shifts/duties or the closest equivalent recorded metric you hold.
b) Within (a), totals recorded as uniformed and plainclothes (or the closest equivalent categorisation you hold).
2) Stop and search
Total stop and searches within the festival footprint (including campsites), with a breakdown by legal power used (for example s1 PACE, s23 Misuse of Drugs Act, s60 CJPOA if used).
3) Arrests and outcomes
a) Total arrests within the festival footprint, broken down by offence group/description as recorded.
b) Total charges (or summonses) authorised, broken down by offence group/description as recorded.
c) Total out of court disposals issued (for example cannabis warnings, community resolutions, penalty notices), broken down by type as recorded.
4) Drug seizures
For drugs seized within the festival footprint, please provide either:
a) the total quantity seized by drug type (weight/volume/count as recorded), or
b) if quantities are not recorded in an extractable way, the total number of seizures by drug type, and confirm that aggregate quantities are not held.
Please include drug types as recorded (for example cannabis, cocaine, ketamine, MDMA, nitrous oxide canisters, psychoactive substances, etc). To help keep this within the appropriate limit, I’m content to receive a single overall total per festival year (no daily breakdown).
Response
Question 1
Please find below the breakdown of uniformed and non-uniformed Officers at Glastonbury, broken down by years. Please note that non-uniform includes non-front line officers such as Criminal Investigation Department (CID). You may notice a dip in non-uniformed officers. This is due to CID being located outside of the footprint of the festival during that year.
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
| Uniform | 771 | 702 | 702 | 653 |
| Non-Uniform | 308 | 90 | 123 | 184 |
| Total | 1079 | 792 | 825 | 837 |
In relation to providing the shifts of those Officers, I am not obliged to supply you with the information requested. The exemption applicable to this information is
- Section 31 – Law Enforcement.
This is a qualified and prejudice-based exemption and as such a harm and public interest test needs to be conducted.
Harm Test
Information will not be disclosed where the current or future law enforcement role of the constabulary may be compromised by the release of that information, i.e. where the prevention/detection of crime, the apprehension/prosecution of offenders or the administration of justice may be hindered as a result of the release of information. Our presence is also to be able to respond to emergencies and keep the public safe from Malicious threats.
There are concerns associated with the release of specific information relating to police officer presence in particular areas and at particular times. Disclosure of information concerning officers on duty at specific times will reveal the staffing levels within Glastonbury at specific times and where they are based would cause operational harm and affect our ability to prevent and detect crime and keep the public safe. Criminality may escalate at certain times in certain areas if it is perceived that there are fewer officers on duty. If operational information is disclosed about officer and resource deployment figures, it could enable individuals or groups intent on committing crime or putting the public at risk, at times when they believe they have a reduced chance of being detected.
Public interest test
Factors favouring disclosure
The requested information relates to the efficiency and effectiveness of the constabulary to police Glastonbury Festival. In this case disclosure of officer numbers available would demonstrate to the public that we have sufficient allocation of resources to respond to crime and disorder.
Factors favouring non-disclosure
By disclosing this level of information, certain times where staffing levels may be lower, could identify vulnerabilities in the policing of the festival. This may provide those with the intention of committing an offence, to act during times with a lower police presence believing that their chances of committing undetected crime and evading arrest would be higher. In this case a clear link exists between knowledge available to criminals and the way they operate. The result of this increased knowledge may subsequently impact on our policing role.
If the police resources for a specific time were disclosed for the previous years, a pattern can be gathered as to how we cover Glastonbury Festival, giving those individuals further knowledge as to how they wish to target future festivals. This would therefore allow for a comparison of police resource levels at certain times and would enable individuals to target their activities when and where they believe they are less likely to be detected and apprehended.
Balancing test
When balancing the public interest test we have to consider whether the information should be released into the public domain. Arguments need to be weighed against each other. The efficiency and effectiveness of the force must be measured against the risk of disclosing information which would assist potential offenders in avoiding detection. Should this information be available to the less law-abiding members of our community, they could perceive it to be an opportunity to take advantage of such information which negatively affects law enforcement.
After weighing up the competing interests, I have determined that the disclosure of the above information is not in the public interest. Protecting the community is of paramount importance to the constabulary. I believe the harm considerations and the importance of protecting our abilities to enforce the law and protect the public outweigh those considerations favoring disclosure
Question 2
Please find table below which provides stop search data broken down by years and the Legal Powers used.
| Stop Search | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 |
| SS Occurrences | 7 | 5 | 5 | 3 |
| SS Persons | 9 | 5 | 8 | 6 |
| Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (s23[2a]) | 7 | 3 | 6 | 5 |
| Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (s23[2a]);Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (s1) | 2 | 1 | ||
| Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (s1) | 2 | 1 | ||
| Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 (s36[2]) | 1 |
Question 3
Please find below, for each year 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 the number of arrests, charges and out of court disposals
2022
| Current Offence Group | Arrests |
| Drug Offences | 7 |
| Public Order Offences | 1 |
| Theft | 1 |
| Violence Against The Person | 4 |
| 13 |
| OC01 – Charge/Summons | OC03 – Caution – Adults | |
| Drug Offences | 4 | 2 |
| Violence Against The Person | 1 | 1 |
| Sum | 5 | 3 |
2023
| Current Offence Group | Arrests |
| Drug Offences | 25 |
| Non Recordable | 1 |
| Possession of Weapons | 2 |
| Sexual Offences | 1 |
| Theft | 2 |
| Violence Against The Person | 2 |
| 33 |
| OC01 – Charge/Summons | OC03 – Caution – Adults | OC22 – Diversionary, educational, intervention | |
| Drug Offences | 9 | 3 | 3 |
| Non Recordable | 1 | ||
| Possession of Weapons | 1 | ||
| Theft | 1 | ||
| Violence Against The Person | 1 | 1 | |
| 13 | 4 | 3 |
2024
| Current Offence Group | Arrests |
| Arson and Criminal Damage | 2 |
| Drug Offences | 14 |
| Fraud | 1 |
| Miscellaneous Crimes Against Society | 1 |
| Non Recordable | 1 |
| Public Order Offences | 2 |
| Sexual Offences | 2 |
| Theft | 2 |
| Violence Against The Person | 9 |
| 34 |
| OC01 – Charge/Summons | OC03 – Caution – Adults | OC08 – Community Resolution | OC22 – Diversionary, educational, intervention | |
| Arson and Criminal Damage | 1 | |||
| Drug Offences | 7 | 1 | 2 | |
| Non Recordable | 1 | |||
| Sexual Offences | 2 | |||
| Violence Against The Person | 3 | 2 | ||
| 12 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
2025
| Current Offence Group | Arrests |
| Drug Offences | 14 |
| Fraud | 9 |
| Non Recordable | 1 |
| Possession of Weapons | 1 |
| Public Order Offences | 1 |
| Sexual Offences | 1 |
| Theft | 1 |
| Violence Against The Person | 8 |
| 36 |
| OC01 – Charge/Summons | OC03 – Caution – Adults | OC22 – Diversionary, educational, intervention | |
| Drug Offences | 8 | 1 | 1 |
| Fraud | 2 | 3 | |
| Possession of Weapons | 1 | ||
| Violence Against The Person | 3 | ||
| 14 | 1 | 4 |
Question 4
Please find attached CSV file which provides the recorded data for drug seizures for 2023, 2024 and 2025.
In relation to 2022, this information is not provided as you specified that ‘this request is limited to figures you can reasonably retrieve from existing event policing returns, summary/debrief documents, custody/arrest records, and force recording systems’. We have provided you with what is held and relevant to your request and omitted the 2022 data.
Please also note that the figures provided only relate to police interaction/seizure and does not relate to seizures made by Glastonbury staff or their contractors.