The national chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales has closed this year’s conference by saying the decision to make it a virtual event was the right one.

John Apter told facilitator Ian Collins: “This was our first virtual conference so it has been strange. We would rather not have had to do it this way but I think we made it the best it could be.

“We have had over 1,200 registered delegates, some from Canada, America, all over, so it has been a great opportunity to reach out to more people.

“People asked me why we didn’t wait until after lockdown was lifted but we had to make a decision and we didn’t know what was going to happen – we still don’t - so it was the right decision in the circumstances and the feedback has been really positive.”

John read out the names of those workplace representatives retiring, adding: “There would normally be applause but we can imagine it.”

Ian Collins said the theme of conference 2021 had been Policing Under Pressure and at times it had also been ‘conference under pressure’.

John added: “We had a couple of glitches and some things going on behind the scenes which caused some hairy moments!”

He then thanked Ian for all his ‘friendship and hard work’ and said he was looking forward to conference 2022.