'Entitled' police throwing Christmas sickies

Record numbers of police were off sick last Christmas Day amid concerns over increased workloads and "entitled" new recruits.

More than 15,000 officers and staff across all UK police forces were off due to illness on December 25 - the highest total since 2017.

The worst rate was in Scotland where one in ten were off. Second was Greater Manchester Police with 9.1 per cent. Nearly 6,000 more staff and officers were off sick than in 2020, with the post-Covid average 46 per cent higher than in previous years.

Retired traffic PC John Scruby said: "I hate to use the word 'entitled', but that's the sort of generation we have brought up. They are now joining not just the police, but the fire service and the Army, and it's coming as a shock to their system. I've heard stories in the last 12 months of them leaving because they have to work weekends and nights.

"It is difficult, you've got family commitments, but you've got a job to do at the end of the day."

Mark Andrews, from the Police Federation, said: "Police officers are there for the public 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

"We will never complain about this because this is what we signed up for. This commitment is undiminished, despite difficulties around resources and ever-increasing workloads.

"Virtually every department across the country is operating at reduced levels meaning officers are carrying an excessive case load, are expected to work longer hours and are having rest days cancelled to pick up the slack. This leads to an increase in stress levels."

Following FOI requests, all forces gave the total number of staff and officers off-sick last year.They were 9,693 and 15,611 for 2020 and 2021 respectively. The highest rate of illness was Police Scotland's 10.5 percent, while the lowest was Northamptonshire Police with 0.8 percent. Pre-pandemic the totals for 2017, 2018, and 2019 were 8,370, 8,359 and 9,181 respectively. While Greater Manchester Police had the highest illness-per-head rate in 2019, Cleveland Police had the highest average over the three pre-Covid years at 4.9 percent. The sickness totals did not rise for every force during the pandemic. Police Scotland saw the largest rise with its sickness rate going up by 4.8 percent.

But the average rates went down during the pandemic at Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Merseyside, Northamptonshire, North Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire, Thames Valley, West Yorkshire and West Midlands forces.