19,000 rest days – the equivalent of 17 years – are owed to Norfolk Police officers

31 October 2024

A shocking 19,000 rest days – the equivalent of 17 years – are owed to Norfolk police officers, new figures show.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request found that 152,395 hours were owed to Norfolk officers from the rank of PC to Chief Inspector.

That equates to around 19,000 eight-hour shifts.

The Chair of Norfolk Police Federation, Andy Symonds, said that the high numbers didn’t surprise him, especially after a summer where officers’ rest days were cancelled so they could police disorder and riots.

But he called on Norfolk Constabulary to ensure that rest days were swiftly re-rostered before officers started to burn out.

Officers’ rest days can be cancelled for “an exigency of the service”, defined as “a pressing need or requirement that cannot be reasonably avoided”. But a lack of available officers was making the problem even worse, Andy said.

He said: “We've seen a significant number of officers deployed to police riots this year, so many officers have had their rest days cancelled. So I'm not surprised to see that figure is higher than it would normally be.

“But this has been going on for the past few years, where we've seen quite a number of officers needing their rest days to be re-rostered as a result of demand. In the past, this demand would have been soaked up by officers who are already on duty. But now the force often doesn’t have enough officers on duty to police events safely and they have to use officers who are on their rest period.

“As we know, officers don’t get a choice when they’re ordered to come in for an exigency of duty, as we’re crown servants.”

Some officers were finding it difficult to re-roster their rest days, Andy added, particularly detectives and those who worked in roads and armed policing.

He said: “That then leads to people burning out and suffering from mental health conditions that are exacerbated because they need that decompression time.”

This led to a vicious cycle, as it created a stressful environment where new recruits were more likely to leave the service, meaning there were even fewer officers, Andy said.

He continued: “We’re encouraging officers to re-roster their rest days as soon as they can. It’s good to do that straight away, rather than adding it to the ‘pot’. We want to put it back onto the force: if they’ve cancelled a rest day, it's over to them to find a day that the officer can take off, that works for both of them.

“The regulations say that the force must re-roster the rest day within four days of the cancellation occurring, and we in the Federation are pushing them on that.”

Andy added that although PCs and Sergeants could accrue their rest days indefinitely, Inspectors and Chief Inspectors had to take their re-rostered rest day within 12 months or they expire. Yet it can be hard for higher-ranking officers to take days off when there are fewer of them doing the job.

So Andy has got the force to agree that, in special circumstances, the Constabulary will be flexible in extending the 12-month period. If the re-rostered day is then cancelled by the force, the Inspector or Chief Inspector will have another 12 months to take the day off.

Andy said: “If officers are struggling to take their rest days back, please contact the Federation – we will step in on your behalf and make sure you get what you’re entitled to.”