Health & Safety

The CCC accepts that police Officers will be treated differently to other public servants in many respects and that police Officers are put in dangerous situations on a daily basis but does not accept that Officers should be treated  any differently under existing health and safety legislation. Section 2(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act states that it is the central duty of the employer to ensure so far as is reasonably practicable the health, safety and welfare of all employees.

The qualification “so far as is reasonable practicable” means that there should be no conflict between effective policing and compliance with health and safety legislation.
Suitable and sufficient risk assessment should ensure that, whilst dangerous activities may need to be undertaken, the risk involved should be reduced to as low as is reasonably practicable.

The bill for police injured on duty rose by more that 15 per cent last year and cost £3million, a high enough figure already; this figure would be set to balloon should the Police be exempted from the health and safety legislation and the subsequent increase in accidents and injury that would inevitably occur.

The CCS believes that where Health and Safety legislation seems to prevent officers from carrying out tasks, it is more frequently a misunderstanding of the regulations by supervisors and officers than the regulations themselves that cause this.

What we want:

• A better training programme for supervisors and officers, so the Police service understands Health and Safety regulations better
  
  
• Police Officers to receive the best equipment available and relevant training

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