Injured Officers To Receive Compensation Sooner

11 December 2019

Injured Officers To Receive Compensation Sooner

A new scheme designed to ensure that officers who are injured in the line of duty receive the compensation they are due has gone live in Leicestershire.

It will allow the force to compensate officers after a court ruling, before later claiming the costs back from the court.

The campaign for the scheme has been run jointly between Leicestershire Police Federation and the force and was inspired by Deputy Branch Secretary & Wellbeing Lead Joe Lloyd.

“When officers are injured, particularly when they’re assaulted on duty and the offender goes to court, sometimes the courts award compensation to the officer. What I’ve found is that the officers very rarely see this money,” Joe said.

“A lot of officers get really frustrated. They get injured and…are actually awarded something and they don’t seem to see it.

“I thought about that and what a great idea it would be if the force paid initially and then recovered the costs themselves from the courts.

“I put that out on Twitter as an idea, because it was a bit of a dream I had.”

Joe later discovered that his dream had already been implemented by Wiltshire Police, so he took the idea forward to Leicestershire Chief Constable Simon Cole, who was enthusiastic about the plan.

Joe says that introducing this type of scheme will benefit officers and make the procedure of receiving compensation much more straightforward.

“The benefit is that it gives an immediacy to the officer because they can claim it once the courts have determined what the outcome should be.

“It’s the force saying: ‘We’re going to look after you and we’ll sort the rest of it out, we’ll sort that money element out’.

“It’s a good thing. It should be done across the country,” Joe added.

Joe stated that it was important officers take care of any compensation award letters the court sends, so that they'll be able to receive the amount they are entitled to immediately.

The new policy becomes active this week but will be backdated to 1 April of this year.