Health and safety in policing needs to be given more importance, police body says

Chief constables are being urged to ensure forces comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act to assess the risk to officers and put in place reasonable measures to reduce the danger attached to each role, event or circumstance their officers will be involved in.

READ NOW: Man admits trying to kill Queen

Chair Zoe Wakefield said the force needed to put greater emphasis on problems in police buildings, with officers having to work at stations without heating or water. She said: ‘Health and safety needs greater importance than the force currently put on it. Our force are currently restricting how we look at health and safety.

‘It’s not always the first thing that should be thought about. We’ve got health and safety trained reps who could be utilised more by the force. Definitely the force needs to look at the state of some of our police stations. We’ve had some issues recently with them.