POLICE: MAKE THE RULES CLEARER
They want easy to understand policy but Home Secretary says: They’re simple!
POLICE leaders demanded more clarity on exercise regulations last night after Priti Patel insisted the rules were ‘simple and clear’ – despite widespread public confusion.
A furious row erupted after the Home Secretary urged people to rely on their judgment and be ‘conscientious’ when deciding whether their daily exercise was within coronavirus regulations.
She confirmed police had issued 45,000 Covidrelated fines since March, including 13,000 in the past three weeks as police dramatically ramped up enforcement.
National Police Chiefs’ Council chairman Martin Hewitt said it would be ‘challenging’ to draw up rules covering every eventuality.
He resisted setting a maximum distance which members of the public could travel for exercise from their homes.
It means the guidelines in England will remain less rigid than those in Northern Ireland, where people must remain within ten miles of home, and in Scotland, where those exercising must not venture more than five miles from their local authority boundary.
In response, Police Federation chairman John Apter told the Daily Mail: ‘What we really need is more clarity on the legislation and the guidance, not just for the police but for the public as well.
‘Without that we will continue to be accused of targeting so-called minor infractions of the rules and more confidence will be lost as a result. Some of the rules are still cloudy, such as what exactly constitutes local when it comes to travelling somewhere for exercise. ‘What is local for one person will not be local for another.’
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick also called for extra guidance, telling the BBC’s Today programme: ‘Anything that brings greater clarity for officers and the public in general will be a good thing.’
West Yorkshire Police Federation chairman Brian Booth criticised existing guidance as ‘woolly’ and ‘unfair’, adding: ‘If you say to people you are going to limit their civil liberties, and you are going to place them in lockdown, state it very clearly. Because it’s not fair on the public either. ‘You can’t just leave it woolly like you’ve done and expect officers to work miracles. It’s just setting the officer up for a fall. We’ve got to have a sound foundation of law to apply properly. If not, the public starts to mistrust us.’
Leicestershire Police Federation chairman Adam Commons said officers across England and Wales had been trying to interpret something ‘incredibly vague’. ‘We can’t have 43 police forces interpreting it a different way,’ he added.
But Miss Patel said: ‘The rules are actually very simple and clear.
‘We are meant to stay at home and only leave home for a very, very limited number of reasons.’ She added that outdoor exercise should happen in a ‘very restricted and limited way, staying local’.
Asked if more detailed rules were on the cards, a Home Office source said: ‘What we want to avoid is more bureaucracy. People should be taking personal responsibility for their decisions.
‘We don’t think it would be helpful to set a specific distance from home, because police officers would have to start asking people where they’ve come from and then work out how far they’ve travelled.
‘It’s more sensible to say something more general, such as if you are exercising you should leave from your front door under your own steam and come back to your front door.’
The NPCC said last Friday that 32,329 fixed-penalty notices were issued by forces in England and Wales between March 27 and December 21. Miss Patel said the figure had risen to just under 45,000, meaning about 13,000 have been handed out in three weeks.
‘It’s setting officers up for a fall’