Vital that Surrey MPs understand pressures on their local police

29 November 2022

It’s vital that Surrey MPs understand the pressures their local police officers are under and give them more support, Surrey Police Federation has said.

On Monday 28 November, Federation Acting Chair Nolan Heather met with Surrey MPs – including Jonathan Lord, Dr Ben Spencer, Crispin Blunt and Paul Beresford – at Westminster, along with the PCC and Deputy PCC.  

The cost-of-living crisis was top of his agenda.

Nolan said: “I wanted to talk to them about how expensive Surrey is to live in as a police officer. The average house price in Surrey is more than 20 times the starting wage of a PC. MPs need to understand the impact of that.

“We can’t retain staff and there’s evidence of officers leaving to join other forces where either they earn more money, such as the Metropolitan Police, or it's cheaper to live.”

More experienced officers will be forced out of Surrey Police, Nolan said, adding that it has been estimated that in five years’ time, over half of Surrey Police officers will have under five years’ service.

He said: “Those experienced officers, who were once there to mentor and guide younger ones, aren't going to be there. And that puts the public at risk, because you've got the inexperienced leading the inexperienced. And then there’s the impact on the officers themselves – there's more stress, more pressure.”

He continued: “The second thing I wanted to press MPs on was being more positive about policing. Far too often, we see damning headlines in the papers. But it’s also MPs themselves talking negatively about policing – they don’t realise the impact that has on officers’ morale.”

Another huge issue for officers was the amount of time they spent on non-policing matters, such as crises within the community and mental health issues, Nolan said.

He emphasised that meeting with MPs and senior decision-makers was an important part of the Federation’s lobbying role.

He said: “There can sometimes be unrealistic expectations around the Federation from members…We represent our members’ interests and negotiate with the force and Government, but we have no powers in law to change things. So we continue to work hard to lobby for change.”