Roads policing conference: how effective is new legislation?
15 January 2024
The effectiveness of new legislation designed to give police drivers better protection in law will be discussed at this year’s Police Federation Roads Policing Conference later this month.
Tim Rogers, secretary of West Midlands Police Federation and the national Federation’s pursuits and driver training lead, will address the virtual conference on 30 January and explain forces’ progress in meeting the requirements set out in the new legislation introduced through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
“As it stands we have been encountering three main challenges in embedding this legislation consistently across the police service: forces failing to comply with the law around licensing their driving schools and trainers, chiefs deviating from learning standards and the Subject Matters Experts, who are now charged with assessing officers’ driving skills, moving away from their areas of expertise,” says Tim, who will be joined by Roger Gardner, police staff driver training manager at Lancashire Constabulary.
Other panelists in this session will include Jo Boxall-Hunt from the College of Policing and barrister Mark Aldred.
Last summer, Tim, who led an eight-year campaign for the legislative change, wrote to all chief constables reminding them of their obligations under the new law.
He explained: “We are having to scrutinise forces’ governance in terms of assessing police driving against the new standard. The way in which some forces are stepping away from the statutory instrument, the very legislation that protects their officers, could mean police drivers are unable to avail themselves of the new protective legislation.
“The college is engaged in a national licensing programme that will ensure that licences to train will only be given to those forces who comply. Jo will be giving some details of this process at the roads policing conference.
“Some forces were found to have deviated from the nationally agreed standards and course lengths for driving courses – the prescribed training detailed in the legislation.
“It will be interesting at the conference to hear from delegates in terms of their experiences within their own forces and to find out what progress they have seen.”
The new legislation means an officer’s driving is now judged by the standard of their peers, in line with their skills and training. But, and it is a critical point to note, officers have to be licensed and up to date with their training and that training has to be delivered by fully accredited trainers working for a force that hold the appropriate training licence. They must deliver only the prescribed training as per Statutory Instrument 1112.
“For the legislation to achieve its policy objectives, forces have to ensure their driver training delivery is fully compliant and delivers the licensed training. Only the unified position we worked hard to implement is to the benefit of all; the true success will only be achieved if all forces fulfil their legal obligations by sticking with the statutory instrument and complying with the regs.”
The conference will be opened by Brian Booth, the national Federation driving lead, who will also take part in the first session which will consider a victim led approach to roads policing. Other panellists in this session will include Dr Jami Blythe, head of development at the road safety organisation Brake, and Richard Crabtree, principal lawyer for serious injury at Slater and Gordon.
Other sessions will cover health and safety around electric vehicles and forensic collision investigation while the closing key stakeholder debate will focus on the future of roads policing.
