Lockdown: clear guidance must be given

30 March 2021

Humberside Police Federation chair Pete Musgrave says he fully supports the national chair’s plea to the Government for clearer guidance on the new eased lockdown restrictions.

He also says John Apter is right to have criticised previous guidance as it made police officers’ work ‘really difficult’.

Pete’s comments came after changes in coronavirus guidance came into effect in England yesterday (29 March). They mean:

• Groups of six people or a group of any size from two households can meet outdoors
• Organised outdoor sports activities can resume, as can outdoor childcare, and
• Organised parent and children groups are allowed outside for up to 15 people with under fives not included in that number.

Pete said: “We appreciate that guidance will be confusing to some extent because of devolved Governments but we had previously asked the Prime Minister not to repeat the lack of clarity that earlier guidance had.

“There have been more than 60 rule changes so it’s no surprise that the public and, indeed officers themselves, are unsure about what’s allowed or not allowed. The lockdown lifting guidelines now need to be absolutely, irrefutably clear so that people cannot either inadvertently fall foul of them or deliberately take advantage of the situation.

“Policing this pandemic has been tough enough but to do so with the added pressure of constantly changing rules has made police officers’ work really difficult.”

John Apter appeared on Good Morning Britain and Sky News yesterday and said: “There are obviously differences between the English rules and those from the Scottish and Welsh Governments, so there is some confusion and we’re used to that. The problem is that this causes frustrations and my colleagues bear the brunt of that out on the streets. 

“There’s been an awful lot of confusion about what’s happening, and that is why I am calling on the Prime Minister and the devolved Governments to be crystal clear on the guidance.” 

John also repeated his call for police officers and other frontline workers to be prioritised for the Covid-19 vaccine, saying: “We have some large scale events coming up in the coming months where hundreds, if not thousands, of police officers will be deployed around the country and yet none of them are being prioritised for the vaccine. It’s a real betrayal by the Government.”