PPE issues raised with MPs

9 April 2020

The secretary of West Mercia Police Federation has supported the national Federation’s efforts to raise the issues surrounding PPE for officers with MPs.

Steve Butler was speaking after the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) operational lead, Simon Kempton, gave evidence on the current situation to MPs on the Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee and made a further call for officers across the country to be given the correct protection while doing their jobs.

Steve says the matter needs to be addressed and problems resolved urgently.

“Officers across the UK need to have the right protective equipment available to them needs to be in place immediately with no further delay,” he explains, “For more than two weeks of movement restrictions, officers have been policing on the front-line and protecting our communities. They need access to suitable PPE to protect them as they go about an incredibly difficult task and stocks must be kept at such a level that they can change these items regularly.”

Addressing MPs, Simon also raised the issues of coronavirus testing for officers and told them that problems with domestic violence and child abuse are likely to be on the increase with people asked to stay indoors for several weeks. 

He said officers would need extra support during the outbreak as they are forced to deal with the trauma of recovering the bodies of COVID-19 victims and concluded by explaining to MPs how difficult it was for forces across the country to deal with policing new legislation around the public’s restricted movements.

“When I joined the service 20 years ago, I was never taught how to police a pandemic. Me and my colleagues are continuing to learn. We now have consistent training and it’s working – but the messaging from the Government to the public needs to be consistent as well,” he added.

“This isn’t business as usual, but our day job goes on alongside COVID-19 and we have got to do everything that we usually would; this increases burden on colleagues.”