Please be aware that we only provide support and advice for police forces and other stakeholders. Responsibility for the health and safety of police officers and staff ultimately lies with the Chief Officer of the relevant force.

Our work includes:

• Providing secretariat support to the ACPO Health, Safety and Welfare Strategic Group and supporting the ongoing work of the related sub groups
• Support for Force Medical Advisors (FMAs) and Selected Medical Practitioners (SMPs), including the SMP Training Days
• Centrally issuing guidance e.g. on pandemic influenza or blood borne viruses
• Encouraging consistency in approaches across forces e.g. on managing officers on restricted duties.

For more information on:

• Attendance (sickness absence) management - please contact the Home Office
• Ill-health retirement and injury awards policy and legislation - please visit the Home Office Police Pensions website
• Health and safety legislation - this lies with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Please visit the Health and Safety Executive's website    
  

Downloads

In the boxes to the right you will find links to relevant documents. At present this includes:

• Links to relevant regulations and legislation
• Pandemic Flu Guidance for the Police Force
• The ACPO Benchmarking Standard of Police Health and Safety Management
• The Home Office Police Health Implementation Group (HOPHIG) documents
• Blood-Borne Viruses: Guidance to the Police Service
• Blood Borne Viruses: BBV Advice and contact points
• Guidance on the Qualification Requirements for Force Medical Advisors

       
If you are looking for a specific document that is not hosted here or should perhaps be added, please contact the NPIA health and safety policy lead.  This website will be constantly updated as information becomes finalised so keep checking this page for the latest additions.

Support for Selected Medical Practitioners (SMPs)

Both the Police Pension Scheme 1987 (PPS) and the New Police Pension Scheme 2006 (NPPS) include a facility to retire police officers who are no longer able to carry out their duties. For more details on other aspects of the pension schemes, please visit; Home Office Police Pensions.

Under both schemes,  the police authority determine whether an officer is to be retired on grounds of ill-health. In reaching that decision, they must refer certain questions to a medical practitioner, commonly referred to as the Selected Medical Practitioner (SMP).

The SMP plays a significant role in helping to determine if an officer is to be retired on ill-health grounds and, if so, what level of benefit the officer is to receive.

With the continued support from our stakeholders, which include experienced FMAs and SMPs, we are developing ways of helping SMPs understand their role, what they need to determine and what questions they need to address. The ultimate objective is to enable SMPs to provide opinions that are fair, consistent and supported by clear evidence and reasoning.

SMP Pensions Event

This year's SMP event was held on 4 November 2011 at NPIA facilities in Ryton-on-Dunsmore. The successful event was attended by many SMPs, FMA and force HR professionals. If you would like to know more about this event or any future planned events, please contact us.

Crowd Dynamics Workshop

This health and safety event was delivered at NPIA Ryton on 22nd November 2011.

Further information on crowd dynamics can be found at the following website: http://www.crowdmodelling.com/.

If you have any general queries about the information on this webpage, please contact Mahmood Mehtar or Matt Johnston at the NPIA.