Part of Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 6:00 pm on 16 October 2007.
Jan Berry: I am grateful for the question because the Police Federation has worked very hard with ACPO and all partners, including the Home Office, to draw together rules and regulations which have the development of officers as their basis. Of officers who do not do their job properly, 99.9 per cent. of them want to be able to do so. So this is about reviewing how to do something and how to do it properly. There has been much comment about lazy and incompetent police officers, but those I have worked with are neither lazy nor incompetent. Yes, like anyone else, we can make mistakes. The rules and regulations should identify that, giving one the opportunity to improve—and if one does not take that opportunity one may in the fullness of time become a liability. That is when one’s service should be dispensed with. I hope that ACPO uses these new regulations in the way that is intended, allowing us to get on with the job but also encouraging people to develop and to learn.