Concerns Raised Regarding Officer Fatigue After Surrey Police Fail To Record Working Hours

13 February 2026

Surrey Police’s inability to record officers’ working hours exposes officers to fatigue and overwork, the Chair of Surrey Police Federation has said.

Darren Pemble was speaking after the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) asked every force in the country for basic working-time data. Two forces – Surrey and Cleveland Police – told them they held no information relating to the question. Surrey Police Federation is now serving its force with a Health and Safety Improvement Notice.

Working Time Regulations set a maximum average working week of 48 hours over a 17-week reference period unless an individual opts out. If police forces are failing to assess whether officers are carrying unsustainable workloads, some Chief Constables could be breaking the law.

A further 26 forces told PFEW it would take more than two days to compile the data because no force-wide information is held. Thirteen forces were yet to respond to the Federation’s questions, and only four forces – Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire and Greater Manchester Police – were able to provide any data.

Darren Pemble, Chair of Surrey Police Federation, said: “Working Time Regulations are clear on what a working week should look like, and if forces are unable to capture this data to manage long working hours, we have to ask why this is the case.

“It is worrying that Surrey Police is still without an IT system that can capture when an officer is working and for how long. This is not just a Surrey issue, either – it appears that police forces across the country are working outside the law. As a Federation, we are concerned that this failure and inability to record this data exposes our members to fatigue and overwork, which will impact on officers’ welfare.

“The law is clear that forces need to capture working time data so they can manage how many hours officers work, so we don’t burn our cops out. This boils down to costs, yet again, as the quick fix is a duty management IT system that requires officers to input their start and finish times.”

PFEW National Secretary John Partington said: "Working time is a frontline safety issue and a major public interest concern. If officers are routinely exhausted because excessive hours and cancelled rest days have become normal, their decision-making in life-or-death situations will be affected.

"If officer welfare means more than just lip service, this information should be at senior leaders’ fingertips. No responsible employer should need two days to work out whether its workforce is being overworked. This shows a system that has normalised excessive hours and leaves a simple question: do leaders not know, or do they not want to know?

"Forces will say this is ‘managed locally’, but if working time and fatigue risk are not visible at top level, they cannot be effectively monitored or controlled. In any other safety-critical profession, an employer that cannot evidence how long its workforce is working would be found in breach of its duties. Policing is no different.”

Darren said: “We are already working with Surrey Police to improve this situation, but we are concerned that this is taking far too long, so we will be serving the force with a Health and Safety Improvement Notice so a remedy can be put in place at the earliest opportunity.”