‘Wholly wrong to blame officers for lack of roads policing’

20 January 2022

Hertfordshire Police Federation secretary Al Wollaston has reacted to a BBC documentary which found that UK roads have become more dangerous since austerity.

Monday’s Panorama programme highlighted that safety specifications for vehicles had continued to move forward, but this had not been reflected in a reduction in deaths and serious injuries – which it suggested was due to “weaker policing”.

In response, Al said: “While clearly I disagree that police officers are in any way to blame – that responsibility must lie with chief officers who set priorities and the Government which provides the resources – I welcome the spotlight that the programme has shone on roads policing.

“We know this is a really key area of policing. It is not just a ‘nice to have’ because when its properly resourced and done right, it saves lives.”

In 2020, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) revealed that there had been a 34 per cent real terms reduction in spending in England and Wales during 2013 to 2019. This was worth about £120 million.

And between 2015 and 2018, an average of 1,610 people lost their lives each year while many more were seriously injured, the report found.

The number of people killed on the roads each year remained stable between 2010 and 2019, after going down for three decades.

Al’s call for the Government to “learn the lessons” of the inspectors’ report and the BBC findings, were echoed by Gemma Fox, roads policing lead for the national Police Federation.

She said: “Every single roads policing officer I know personally wants to be pro-active, but the lack of resources has meant the public information side of the role has not been prioritised and this has been really damaging.

“The reality is the number of specialist officers has rapidly declined in recent years alongside a marked reduction in resources. We must see further investment as there is so much more which can be done to improve safety for colleagues and the public.”