Surrey Police Federation calls for police officers to be added to the Covid vaccine priority list

4 January 2021

Surrey Police Federation is calling on the Government to add police officers to the priority Covid-19 vaccination list to ensure officers can keep themselves, their families and the public safe.

Whilst “frontline health and social care workers” are second in the Government’s published priority list for the vaccine roll-out, police officers do not feature at all on the advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation.

Surrey Police Federation Chair Mel Warnes said getting the vaccine would go ‘some way’ to alleviate officers’ concerns about working on the COVID frontline especially given the rise in cases in the South East.

“Police officers should be given a level of priority to receive the COVID-19 vaccine,” she said.

“Frontline officers don’t have a choice as to whether they attend work or not. They have to.

“They are in contact with the public every day, responding to calls, entering homes and dealing with people in a close contact environment.

“The new strain of COVID-19 is prevalent in the south-east and being a priority to receive the vaccine would go some way to alleviate fears police officers and their families have.”

Mel added that the virus has had an impact on the Surrey force, with sickness and self-isolation keeping officers off the frontline.

“Sickness levels and self-isolating numbers are increasing across Surrey, and it is proving more and more difficult to resource teams to deal with day to day calls,” she said.

“Police officers should be given the protection they deserve for policing the pandemic day in day out.

“They should be treated the same as frontline NHS workers, and I would urge the Government to listen to the reasoning behind why police officers should be afforded this protection as a priority.”

The PFEW is also now stepping up its campaign to get officers vaccinated as a priority. It says fears remain that officers who spend so much of their time dealing directly with the public could become disease spreaders and put their lives and the lives of their families at risk.

Chairman John Apter said: “This is certainly not about jumping the queue in front of the most vulnerable members of society or those on the NHS frontline.

“It’s about ensuring policing is resilient enough to cope with the demands of the pandemic and that my colleagues can continue to support the public during these exceptional times.”

He added: “If we expect police officers to continue to police in the way that we do, then it’s essential they are given the protection they deserve.”

According to the Government, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation “does not advise further prioritisation by occupation during the first phase of the [Vaccination] programme.”

It adds: “Occupational prioritisation could form part of a second phase of the programme, which would include healthy individuals from 16 years of age up to 50 years of age, subject to consideration of the latest data on vaccine safety and effectiveness.”