Forces Don’t Know If Officers Are Critically Overworked

A new system coming to South Yorkshire Police will record officers’ working hours, as it emerged that many forces are not fulfilling their legal requirements.

Twenty-six forces, including South Yorkshire Police, recently told the Police Federation of England and Wales that they could not provide basic working-time data, claiming it would take more than two days to compile because no force-wide information is held.

The national Federation plans to issue Health and Safety Notices of Improvement to these forces for urgent improvement, warning that continued blindness to officer fatigue puts officers and the public at risk. Working Time Regulations set a maximum average working week of 48 hours over a 17-week reference period unless an individual opts out.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said that the lack of data on working hours was “a real concern”, especially since it is a legal requirement under health and safety law for officers to record the hours they are working.

But he said his colleague, South Yorkshire Secretary Dave Baines, was ahead of the curve on the issue, as he has been surveying officers and liaising with the force over the past year.

Steve explained: “In our force, we’ve been particularly looking at the more senior officers within our Federation ranks. We’ve surveyed them numerous times, we’ve spoken to them, and it is a massive concern. It’s not being addressed.

“There is a new system coming to South Yorkshire Police that will record officers’ working hours. Particularly for our inspecting ranks, when they’re doing work at home or they’re staying on, they need to record their hours. There’s a system coming into place that will record that, and will hopefully make the force compliant in its recording.

“So we have got a strategy in place on how to work with the force to bring this on to the next level.”