Police officers lose 240,000 rest days amid staffing ‘crisis’

♦ Police officers are owed up to a week in rest days due to staff shortages, the Police Federation has complained.

The union described the situation as being “in crisis”, with the lowest number of police in a generation, fears over rising violent crime, and a leaked Home Office report linking the two.

Calum Macleod, chairman of the Police Federation in England and Wales, said cancelling rest days – the equivalent of a weekend off during a working week – had a worrying impact on morale, mental and physical health, and efficiency.

Figures obtained by the Press Association showed that some 237,697 rest days were owed to 70,000 police officers in England and Wales as of Sept 17 last year – the last time the country’s terror alert was at “critical”.

They had been either cancelled, outstanding or waiting to be re-rostered. The true figure is expected to be far higher when the country’s two biggest forces – the Met and West Midlands Police are added.