Over 17,000 Rest Days Owed To South Yorkshire Officers

“There needs to be a cultural shift” in dealing with rest days, the Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation has said, as it emerged that nearly 820,000 rest days are owed to police officers in the UK.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request found that Constables, Sergeants, Inspectors and Chief Inspectors were owed 817,884 rest days – the equivalent of 2,240 years – as of 1 March 2026. The true figure is likely to be even higher, as four forces were unable to provide data.

Police Regulations allow for two rest days a week, and many forces roster these as two consecutive days. But officers’ rest days can be cancelled for “an exigency of the service”. This is defined as “a pressing need or requirement that cannot be reasonably avoided”, and includes unforeseen public order situations, court attendance and essential training.

If a rest day is cancelled with fewer than 15 days notice, the officer is entitled to payment. If more than 15 days notice is given, the officer should be notified of an alternative day off within four days (depending on the force), but this does not always happen.

South Yorkshire Police owes 17,372 rest days to its officers, which averages out at eight days per officer. South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said that officers were worn out policing large events such as football matches.

He said: “We are a medium-sized force with a large-sized footprint. And, outside of the Met and the West Midlands, we have one of the biggest football footprints in the country, meaning we have to police a lot of football matches.

“The force is trying to save money by not offering overtime, so it ends up cancelling people’s rest days. That then adds up and adds up. And because there’s so much work to do, and so few staff to do it for the size of the force, the officers don’t feel they can take their rest days back.

“That’s something that we see across the ranks, but particularly in the inspecting ranks, where it just piles up because they never get a chance to take their time back.”

Steve continued: “There needs to be a cultural shift. There needs to be a better plan for dealing with these rest days and preventing them from piling up in the first place. Because as it stands, this problem isn’t going to go anywhere.

“Officers are burning out. We’ve done surveys of our inspecting ranks and some of them have been averaging 60 to 70 hours a week. It’s not safe to be that exhausted. The Health and Safety Working Time Regulations Notice has been served on our force and lots of other forces throughout the country. The force has now got to tell us how it’s going to manage people’s welfare and time at work versus time off.”