Federation keen to meet county MPs

9 July 2024

Suffolk Police Federation secretary Ben Hudson says he is looking forward to meeting county MPs following last week’s General Election.

The Federation branch is writing to all the MPs asking if they will attend a meeting to discuss the current challenges the police service is facing.

“As a Federation, we obviously exist to give our members a voice and therefore we would want to talk to MPs about the issues that matter to police officers right now and that covers everything from pay to personal protective equipment and from crime to community safety, plus many things in between,” says Ben.

“But we want to have a two-way conversation, and we want to hear our MPs’ views on policing, what their constituents were saying while they were out canvassing before the election and where they want to see change.

Relationship

“Relations between the police service and the previous Government had become badly strained and many officers feel they were not treated fairly, but the time has come for us to move forward, seek to build effective working relationships with our MPs and the Government and, above all, do all we can to ensure that the communities we serve get the best policing services possible.

“Long-term and sustained investment in policing is going to be key to this and, again, this is something we will discuss with MPs if they agree to meet with us. I really hope they do and I am looking forward to meeting them and having productive conversations.”

In addition to being the secretary of the Suffolk Police Federation branch, Ben chairs the Federation’s National Detectives’ Forum and is leading on the #SimplifyDG6 campaign which calls for a change to data protection legislation to save officers thousands of hours’ work.

Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay was elected in Waveney Valley.

“This is another issue that I would like to talk to our MPs about,” says Ben, “We want the Government to simplify the redaction obligations officers face at the pre-charge stage and also want the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the College of Policing and the CPS to work with the Federation to ensure members receive nationally agreed face-to-face training on disclosure procedures.

“I fully appreciate this is quite a complicated area, but by speaking to MPs face to face I am sure I can give them a better understanding of the difficulties officers face due to the current legislation and also explain how this could be remedied.”

Labour’s election manifesto included plans to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour with a mission to ‘take back our streets’, reduce serious violence and rebuild public confidence in policing by getting officers back on the streets.

Patrols

The party said it would introduce a new Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, restoring patrols to town centres by recruiting thousands of new police officers, police and community support officers (PCSOs) and Special Constables and putting 13,000 extra neighbourhood police and PCSOs on the beat.

It pledged to introduce new penalties for offenders, get knives off the streets, set up a specialist rape unit in every police force and launch a new network of Young Futures hubs.

Funding for its manifesto pledges would come from ending private schools’ tax breaks and a Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme.

Ben commented: “We look forward to seeing the Government putting these manifesto pledges into action, and also re-building the trust between politicians and the Police Federation, with an overhaul of the police pay review process being a key part of that.”

The eight newly-elected Suffolk MPs are: Peter Prinsley, Patrick Spencer, Jack Abbott, Jess Asato, James Cartlidge, Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, Adrian Ramsay and Nick Timothy.

READ MORE: Federation will campaign for industrial rights.