21/11/2025
Police officers are facing increasing pressure, scrutiny and stress on the frontline and need more support, Lancashire Police Federation has said.
Ian McVety, Vice Chair and Misconduct Lead at Lancashire Police Federation, was speaking at the Police Federation of England and Wales’s 2025 Annual Conference, held on 18-19 November.
He said: “A lot of issues that came up at Conference this year are similar to what we're hearing in our branch... Response officers are facing ever-increasing demands. Bigger asks. Longer hours. It's very important to recognise the welfare of those officers.
“It feeds into the fact that we’ve had a lot of new legislation – amendments to the conduct regulations, the vetting regulations, the Home Office guidance, the APPs. And never before have officers been under so much scrutiny. They're under so much pressure when they turn up to incidents in that there's dash cam, bodyworn video, everybody's got a mobile phone.
“In one of the presentations I give to new recruits, I say: think of your life at work as though you're on stage. Everybody's recording you. And that pressure and accountability deserves fair pay. It's up to us as local Federations to make those representations to our chief officers.”
Another impactful Conference session was ‘Code Zero: Policing’s Su***de Crisis’, where delegates heard from the widow of an officer who had died by su***de.
PFEW has written to forces asking how many of their officers had died by su***de between 2022 and 2024. Two large forces are yet to respond, but so far PFEW has been told about 55 officers who took their own lives in this period, of whom 34 were under investigation. In addition, 120 had reported attempting to take their own lives, 71 of whom were under investigation.
“Those figures are astonishing,” said Ian. “We need to work together with our occupational health and welfare people and our chief officers to get those numbers down.
“My main takeaway from Conference is that we've got to hold our chief officers to account. We need to record the number of officer su***des, and remember that su***de isn't rank-specific. Everybody's under pressure – it’s not just about the frontline, it's also sergeants, inspectors, chief inspectors, we're all under enormous pressure.”
Delegates at the PFEW Annual Conference voted to introduce a £2 per month increase in member subscriptions from 1 January 2026. See more on what the increase will deliver here: polfed.org/news/latest-news/2025/2026-subscription-changes-confirmed-following-conference-vote/
