The contract, which has been put out for bid by the Home Office, would replace the 7,000 suits now available and add 5,000 more, The Daily Mail reports.

"We constantly look at what our needs are to ensure that we have the resources we need to maintain public safety, which is our priority," a spokesman for the Home Office said.

He told the newspaper that the 5,000 additional suits would be allocated to ordinary police officers given some additional training in responding to attacks with unconventional weapons.