Queen's Speech December 2019 - Police Powers and Protections Bill

Police Powers and Protections Bill

The purpose of the Bill is to:

● Recognise the bravery, commitment and sacrifices of police officers and empower them with additional powers, support and protection.

The main benefits of the Bill would be:

To implement the Government’s commitment to establish a Police Covenant on a statutory footing and ensure that Parliament has the opportunity to scrutinise progress made against the Covenant.

To allow special constables access to the representation and support afforded to Police Federation members, for example when a special constable faces disciplinary proceedings.

To ensure that the law provides highly trained police drivers with the necessary legal protection when driving in accordance with their training when pursuing suspects and apprehending criminals on the roads.

To strengthen the powers available to the police to allow them to tackle unauthorised encampments, including consideration of broadening the existing categories of criminal trespass.

The main elements of the Bill are:

• ●  Introducing a statutory requirement for the Home Office to report annually on progress made against the Police Covenant.

• ●  Measures to allow special constables (fully warranted volunteer police officers) to join the Police Federation so that they can benefit from the additional protection and support afforded to members.

• ●  Introducing a new test to assess the standard of driving of a police officer, so that their skills and training can be taken into account should there be any subsequent investigations into their actions.

• ●  Potential measures to criminalise the act of trespassing when setting up an unauthorised encampment in England and Wales, and the introduction of new police powers to arrest and seize the property and vehicles of trespassers who set up unauthorised encampments.

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Territorial extent and application

● The Bill's provisions would apply in the main to England and Wales. Provisions related to introducing a new driving standards test for police officers are relevant to Scotland as road safety framework legislation is reserved and extends across Great Britain.

Key facts

• ●  In 2018-19 there were over 30,000 assaults on police officers in England and Wales (including British Transport Police), an increase of 12 per cent compared with over 27,000 assaults on police officers in the previous year.

• ●  There are currently 10,640 special constables in England and Wales (excluding the British Transport Police). Special constables are fully warranted volunteer police officers and are becoming involved in an increasing range of specialist roles within policing.

• ●  A 2017 survey of special constables (led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council) indicated that special constables would like access to greater welfare support, like that offered by the Police Federation.

• ●  The number of police pursuits authorised during 2016-17 was approximately 10,000, with around 500,000 police response drives. 97 independent investigations into road traffic incidents were completed between 1 April 2012 and 30 September 2017. As a result of these investigations, two officers were prosecuted for pursuit related incidents and five were prosecuted following investigations into emergency response driving.

• ●  In July 2019, the number of recorded Traveller caravans on unauthorised sites in England and Wales, on land not owned by Travellers was 1098. Of these, 728 caravans were on land without the permission of the landowner.