§ 19. Mr. FabricantTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the role of special police constables. [147107]
§ Mr. StrawThe special constabulary has a long tradition of giving valuable public service, but numbers have declined in recent years.
Specials are now being deployed on a wider variety of duties than before, including more front-line duties, where they are exposed to the same risks as regular officers.
Under the Police (Health and Safety) Act 1997, police officers, including specials, were brought within the scope of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. Police forces must therefore take the necessary measures to safeguard the health and safety of all their officers, and the training and equipment provided to specials is of the same standard as that for regular officers. The recruiting criteria for specials are now very similar to those for regular officers, and a number of applicants who would previously have been accepted into the special constabulary are now being rejected.
The Association of Chief Police Officers and the Home Office are reviewing the criteria for becoming a special to see whether they have become unnecessarily restrictive.