New Police Conduct Regs Could Lead To ‘Hostile’ Environment For Officers

Amends to the police conduct regulations could lead to a “hostile and unfair environment for officers”, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

Chair Steve Kent was speaking as the national Federation expressed concerns that the Police (Conduct) Regulations 2020 was out of step with the new Code of Ethics.

The Code of Ethics, produced by the College of Policing in tandem with PFEW, aims to give clear guidance to police officers to adhere to ethical behaviour, both on and off duty, but PFEW says there is now a mismatch between the official Home Office guidance, the Police (Conduct) Regulations 2020 and the new Code of Ethics. It has strongly urged the Home Office to revise its guidance.

Steve says he has a bigger concern about proposed Home Office changes to the Police (Conduct) Regulations, which the Government says will be “stronger on standards [and] give a greater role to Chief Constables”.

Steve said: “We’ve got serious concerns about the conduct regulations that are being amended as we speak, in that they set up a hostile and unfair environment for officers and could encourage constructive dismissal by stealth.

“So we need to have not just integration in the Code of Ethics, but a full, root-and-branch discussion about the fairness and proportionality of police conduct regulations.

“We keep changing the goalposts of regulations because of individual forces’ inability to deal with people robustly. We might not always agree with our force’s stance on discipline, but they quickly deal with people who need to be exited from the organisation, using the existing regulations.

“Of course I welcome the new Code of Ethics, but for me, it doesn’t go far enough. There needs to be a much bigger look at conduct and regulations, and we need to stop knee-jerk reactions by politicians.”