Police drivers urged to ensure they are ‘in ticket’

11 July 2023

The legal guidance underpinning the legislative change that affords police drivers better protection in law has now been updated.

After a successful campaign by the Police Federation, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 delivered the framework to ensure that police officers’ skills and training could be taken into account rather than their driving being judged by the standards of the careful and competent driver.

But the Director of Public Prosecutions’ (DPP) guidance had to be updated to reflect the changes that came into effect on 30 November 2022 with the new legal test for police drivers.

The legislative change followed an eight-year campaign led by Tim Rogers, secretary of West Midlands Police Federation and national Federation lead for police pursuits and driver training.

He explained: “This has been a hard-fought campaign to get this legislation in place. Time and time again, it felt like we were making progress but then we would be hit by another hurdle to get over.

“Having finally succeeded with what we set out to do, we are seeing evidence that the legislation is delivering the changes we wanted. But we now need to ensure that officers of all ranks are aware of their obligations under the new law and that includes chief constables who must make sure their forces are compliant.”

Tim said that while the legislation came into effect last year, there has been a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure that it is truly fit for purpose hence the new DPP guidance.

“The act does give better protection to police drivers and should give them the confidence that their training is recognised in law whereas prior to this new legislation, pretty much everything officers did when driving a police vehicle and carrying out the job they were trained to do would be viewed as illegal in a court of law,” he explained.

“But there is a caveat, and one that each and every police officer who drives a police vehicle has to be aware of and take responsibility for.

Tim Rogers, secretary of West Midlands Police Federation and national
Federation lead for police pursuits and driver training.

“All officers’ training must comply with the regulations and the law, through Statutory Instrument 1112. There can be no ifs, no buts, no exclusions, no selection and no senior management deviation. Not even chief constables can extend officers’ validation to perform a tactic, for example.

“Incidentally, chief officers are responsible for the adherence but it is the driving officer who would ultimately be charged for non-compliance.”

Under the guidance, officers’ driver training has to be delivered by a driver trainer who has been licensed by the College of Policing. Once again, there is no leeway. Training delivered by a non-licensed person is invalid and will leave officers in a vulnerable position. There is a sensible protective governance process which cannot in any way be deviated from. The college is conducting licencing compliance checks. It will not license a force which does not comply with the provisions of the law.

Since the new law came into effect, a Subject Matter Experts (SME) group has been established to assess police drivers, where needed, against the new test. This is achieving good levels of consistency with easy accessibility for all interested parties.

Tim explained: “I have seen fair results here with the need for additional reviews becoming less common. The new law does appear to be achieving the intentions I set it out to achieve. There have been cases where officers would definitely have been charged, yet under the new law were not.

“This is a generational change for policing and one that should not be spurned by decisions to deviate from the statutory instrument.”

Tim, who is part of the SME group, adds: “Locally, however, we are in need of improvement. Forces with driving standards mechanisms are expanding their advisory role into fields that sit outside their scope of expertise. We are supported here by the National Police Chiefs’ Council who will be mandating a model for all forces to follow and this needs to be implemented soon.

“The process requires knowledgeable advice for decision-makers at a local level. It does not require improvised collision investigation as we have seen in some circumstances.

“In the meantime, I would urge all officers to make sure they are fully aware of the new legislation and the regulations that underpin that law. But, above all, I cannot stress enough how crucial it is that they don’t drive if they are not licenced; if your training is not up to date, do not drive a police vehicle.”

Tim is writing to all chief constables to remind them of their obligations under the law.