Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to bring forward proposals on (a) mandatory standards or (b) accountability for the mental wellbeing of police officers.

The Government and police leaders take this matter very seriously and are working to support the mental and physical wellbeing of all police officers and staff.

We have invested in programmes which offer help directly to officers and staff. This includes £7.5million to fund the development of the National Police Wellbeing Service, which was launched in 2019. The Service is helping forces to identify where there is most risk of impacts on mental health, and developing work around building resilience, as well as putting in place support for those who need it in response to traumatic events. This helps Chief Constables in their duty to ensure the wellbeing of all officers and staff.

The Government has also accelerated work to introduce a Police Covenant, which will ensure our police get the support and protection they need. The Covenant will be enshrined in law, with provisions being brought forward later this session, and the Home Secretary will have a duty to report annually to Parliament on the work undertaken.

Our focus will be on health and wellbeing, physical protection and support for families. We are in no doubt that an area we must focus on is mental health support. Working with policing partners and others, we intend to build on the existing work started by the National Police Wellbeing Service as part of the Covenant to support the mental health of our police.

The Service has already been working hard to embed Occupational Health Standards in forces – it is important that in the first instance, we make sure that forces have the right people, make the right investment and ensure the best quality in this area. We intend to monitor this closely through the Police Covenant in future.