ESSEX police drivers remain under the threat of prosecution after the second reading of The Emergency Response Drivers (Protections) Bill was cancelled at the last minute.<\/p>\n
MPs had been due to hear the second reading of the bill, which aims to give emergency response drivers better protection from prosecution, on March 16th.<\/p>\n
However, it was pulled from Parliament\u2019s agenda earlier that week to allow for the completion of an ongoing review which will investigate \u2018the law and best practice regarding police pursuits.\u2019<\/p>\n
The bill is now expected to be given its second reading on July 6th.<\/p>\n
Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor was angered by the delay.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s desperately disappointing news,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if it had received a second reading there\u2019s still a long way to go in it delivering the protection we hope it will.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a ticking time bomb and it\u2019s only a matter of time until someone catches a severe cold off the back of their driving.<\/p>\n
\u201cDriving that we train them to do, driving that we expect them to do and that when they deliver within the parameters of their training, could still fall below the standard of a \u2018careful and competent driver.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve believes that every police driver should be afforded the same protection the proposed bill could provide and is opposed to the National Police Chief\u2019s Council bid to focus any law changes on pursuit drivers in the first instance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we should push back from that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe risks and penalties faced don\u2019t differ from the type of driving whether it\u2019s in pursuit or answering a 999.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s the result of the driving where the risk lies.<\/p>\n
“We shouldn\u2019t bite off little bits of the issue but should deal with it all in one go, otherwise we could end up pitting one type of police driver against another.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Police Federation Of England and Wales has fought long and hard for a revision to the bill to protect their members from unfair prosecutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo get this disappointing news just hours away from a key legislative milestone, which had already secured cross-party support, is a bitter blow \u2013 and all the more devastating,\u201d said its Pursuits Lead Tim Rogers.<\/p>\n
The current legislation allows no exemptions for police pursuits meaning police drivers can be held liable for \u2018dangerous driving\u2019 even when in pursuit.<\/p>\n
The law also doesn\u2019t take into account the high level of specialised training officers are given.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will not stop campaigning for this important legislative change and we will also now have to consider our position and what advice to issue to members,\u201d Tim added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ESSEX police drivers remain under the threat of prosecution after the second reading of The Emergency Response Drivers (Protections) Bill was cancelled at the last minute. MPs had been due\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4147"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4147"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4149,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4147\/revisions\/4149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}