Home Secretary working to see officers prioritised for jabs

20 January 2021

The Home Secretary says she has been working to prioritise police officers in the roll-out of the coronavirus vaccine and that she has the full support of Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

Priti Patel told LBC Radio’s Nick Ferrari that, through her work with the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), she is ‘absolutely working to achieve’ officers and staff, firefighters and teachers being included in the next phase of the immunisation programme. She also said she has warned policing partners to prepare for the ‘massive logistical challenge’ of rolling out the jabs to frontline officers and staff. 

The chair of Humberside Police Federation, Pete Musgrave, welcomed the news, saying: “We understand that the JCVI makes the final decision on the order in which people will get the vaccine and it is right that the most vulnerable get it first. But it’s good to hear that the Home Secretary is doing all she can to ensure that police officers are given some kind of priority.

“The need for frontline health workers, the elderly and vulnerable, those in care homes and care home staff to be immunised is clear but I think it is also important for police officers and others on the frontline to be protected as they have been putting their lives at risk as part of the nation’s response to the pandemic.”

He added: “Officers should now be given the vaccine as a matter of priority – not just for the benefit of their own health and that of their families, but also to help maintain the resilience of the services provided. The Home Secretary and the Health Secretary seem to understand that and we now just need to see the JCVI act.”

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick told LBC yesterday she was “baffled” that officers were not nearer the front of the queue for the jab and National Federation chair John Apter has also been calling for police officers to be prioritised in the vaccine roll-out programme.

Listen to the LBC interview.