Paul said: “This year’s seminar certainly came at an interesting time as far as conduct and discipline is concerned so it was good to catch up with our CAPLO colleagues from Federation branches across England and Wales as well as the national leads to discuss some very important issues away from the spotlight.”

He said one of the highlights of the seminar was a presentation by Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) director general Michael Lockwood.

“He came across well and seemed supportive of police officers,” said Paul, “He said he had been visiting forces and different areas of policing and wants his staff to go out and experience the frontline so they have a better understanding of it themselves.

“Importantly, he acknowledged that mistakes made by police officers who were trying to do their best in difficult circumstances should be viewed as performance requires improvement (PRI) cases rather than misconduct.”

The Police Federation Time Limits campaign to end lengthy misconduct investigations was also discussed at the seminar.

“Michael Lockwood said timeliness had improved recently but accepted it was still a major issue that had to be addressed,” said Paul.

“He also announced his intention to increase organisational and individual learning to try to cut the number of misconduct cases with a ‘prevention rather than cure’ approach.”

Reflecting on the seminar, which took place in Birmingham, Dean said: “We have covered a lot of interesting ground over the past two days.

“I think it is really helpful to attend these seminars, share experiences, discuss good practice and talk about the current issues which are affecting our members.”