Hands off our rest days: Nottinghamshire officers owed almost 8,000 days off

12 May 2026

Nottinghamshire Police officers are owed 7,826 rest days, new figures have revealed.

It’s prompted a warning from Nottinghamshire Police Federation that policing is being sustained by officer goodwill rather than proper funding and resourcing.

Branch chair Mark Lee said: “Policing has reached the point where the dedication and willingness of officers is masking the pressures and demands the service is facing.

“Officers step up because they care about the public, but their goodwill should not be relied on to keep policing operational.”

The figure was obtained through a Freedom of Information request by Police Oracle. It showed that officers across England and Wales are collectively owed 817,884 rest days.

Mark said losing rest days carries real consequences for officers’ physical health, mental wellbeing, and long-term resilience.

He said: “Our members deal every day with traumatic incidents.

“Rest days allow them time away from the frontline to recuperate and return fit for duty.

“When their rest is cancelled, tiredness builds, stress accumulates, and it can spill over into officers’ personal lives with missed birthdays and cancelled family plans.

“It all adds up to impact morale, retention, and the service the public receives.”

Hands off our rest days

The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) recently launched its Hands off our rest days campaign in response to proposals from police chiefs that would weaken protections around police officers’ rest days.

The campaign warns that policing is facing unprecedented pressure and that rest-day safeguards are vital to protecting officers’ wellbeing.

Mark said: “For years, we have warned that rising demand and cuts to funding and numbers would have consequences, and this is one of the results.

“I’m sure that if officers were able to work to rule and stopped sacrificing their rest days, many areas of policing would struggle to maintain business as usual.

Goodwill

“You cannot build a resilient police service on goodwill.

“Something has to change, and it has to change now.”

Tiff Lynch, Police Federation national chair, said: “Unsustainable workloads that put officers at risk are, shamefully, the operating model of policing.

"These figures lay that bare.

Rest time

"We will not accept the continued erosion of officer safety and health, nor chiefs whose only answer to this crisis is to make it cheaper and easier to take officers’ rest time away.

"We have already taken enforcement action against forces failing in their legal duty of care, and we will do so again and again until the message hits home."

READ MORE: MHAW: members encouraged to prioritise their wellbeing.