Federation appalled officers have been given no level of vaccine priority

SOUTH Yorkshire Police Federation says it’s ‘appalled’ at how police officers have largely been ignored in drawing up the priority list for the COVID vaccinations.

Some reports show an alarmingly small number of officers across the country have received their first jabs despite them being out on the frontline and coming into contact with the public every day.

In many cases, it’s only been the determination of some forces to secure excess doses, which have seen their officers and staff inoculated.

“We are still absolutely appalled that the Government has ignored us in terms of official vaccination, especially when we’ve seen colleagues in council departments which are not NHS linked get the jab due to their occupation,” Steve Kent, South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair, said.

“There is a lot of hypocrisy out there and also failure to take into account the role that we do.

“I am grateful to the force which has done an unbelievably sterling job in getting as many of the surplus vaccines that would have otherwise gone to waste to our officers.

“Absolute credit to them for working with the NHS to get that done.”

The issue has been a major bugbear for the national Federation too.

Back in December, Chair John Apter called on the Government to ‘do the right thing’ and get police officers a place in the vaccination queue, while last month, he said officers had to be first in line for any surplus supplies.