“Map out when officers will receive the jab”
16 February 2021
The chair of West Midlands Police Federation has urged Priti Patel to map out when officers will be vaccinated against Covid-19.
Jon Nott welcomed the Home Secretary explaining that she’s told police chiefs to put plans in place for receiving the vaccine.
But now he’s urging Ms Patel to put a timeframe in place for when the roll-out will start so that planning can begin.
Jon said: “We welcome the Home Secretary’s comments that she’s asking forces to look at their plans around rolling out the vaccine. This will involve some logistical effort, so we would urge the Home Secretary to map out when officers are going to receive the jab so we can meet the challenge and get our colleagues the protection they need and deserve when out serving their communities.
“Once it’s available, we need to be in a position to ensure as many officers as possible are vaccinated as quickly as possible,” Jon added.
His comments came after the Home Secretary told LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast radio programme late last week that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) was looking at how officers can receive the vaccine.
Asked by the host why she was waiting on the JCVI, the body in charge of prioritising the vaccine roll-out, Ms Patel said: “Because politicians cannot dictate to JCVI in terms of the prioritisation.
“The JCVI are making the right decisions to actually reduce hospitalisations and deaths, so they have prioritised the vaccine roll-out on that basis and alongside individuals, those sectors, including professions that are at high occupational risk, and police officers are in that category.
“So they are looking now at how we can make sure that police and others that have high occupational risk will get the vaccine. And that is alongside the fact that police officers are receiving the vaccine, those that are at risk, and also there are other police forces that do have these informal ways of working with CCGs (clinical commissioning groups).
“I absolutely want to see police officers receiving the vaccine across the country, which is why I’ve asked the 43 forces to get their plans ready for vaccine roll-out.”
