Police to maintain voluntary mask policy after June 15 changes

Police officers will not be required to use face masks and gloves, despite new University of Cambridge research which states that everyone should be wearing one to halt the spread of Covid-19 - and there will be no change in mask use after June 15 when new regulations make it law for the public to wear a mask on public transport.

PPE should be “readily available to” to police officers, according to College of Policing guidelines, but officers are not be obliged to use them.

Concerns about officers not wearing masks were raised by a member of the public who was in her Fen Ditton home when police arrested Extinction Rebellion activist Nick Skelton on May 29.

The two officers arrested Mr Skelton in his garden but then entered the house because Mr Skelton needed to collect medication before being taken away - in a police van where again officers were not wearing masks.

“His temperature was taken and he was issued with a fresh mask,” said Mr Skelton’s partner, Kay Goodridge, of the arrest procedure. “The police, however, were not wearing masks and did very little to maintain social distancing.”

At Parkside police station, Mr Skelton was charged with conspiracy to cause criminal damage at XR’s Elizabeth Way cycle lane protest, and criminal damage on a Cambridge roundabout.

Guidelines for police have been set out by the College of Policing and state that, while not required inside a police station, it is recommended that mask and gloves “should be readily available for officers where it is necessary to deploy double-crewed patrols or in personnel carriers”.

A College of Policing spokesperson told the Cambridge Independent the issue of officers wearing PPE was “a matter for individual forces”.

Supt Robin Sissons, of Cambridgeshire police, said: “Officers are doing a difficult job in extremely difficult circumstances. Each time they meet a person they do not know if that person is carrying the virus and they have to take the risk that they may catch it from that person and then take it home to their loved ones. As an organisation, we have provided the necessary PPE, but it is left to their discretion and ability to dynamically risk assess every incident they go to, as to whether they use it or not. The Covid rates in Cambridgeshire have been consistently low compared to other areas in the UK and this would be part of their dynamic risk assessment.”

He added that officers are briefed regularly about the virus symptoms, are constantly self-monitoring and said “the likelihood of the community catching the virus from an officer is very low”.

Meanwhile, the national picture for mask wearing regulations from next Monday (June 15) is becoming clearer, though bear in mind that there are three categories of mask - respirator masks are the most effective, then surgical masks which don’t stop the smallest droplets of the virus n the air, then face coverings, which are effective at stopping others from catching the virus if you have it, but offering weaker levels of protection against the droplets. So:

- Front line hospital staff working for the NHS “will be expected to wear surgical masks from June 15, while all visitors and outpatients will be expected to wear face coverings at all times”

- Respirator and surgical masks “should be left for healthcare staff and other workers who need them” - though which workers has been a matter of dispute.

- Public Health England (PHE) recommends masks for NHS staff and social care workers but does not suggest other people wear them outside

- The public must wear face coverings in order to use public transport (buses, trains, ferries and planes) from June 15.

Evidence from the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) states that face coverings could help reduce transmission risk among those suffering from coronavirus but not showing symptoms.

If nine in 10 people wear effective DIY face masks in public Covid-19 could be “wiped out”, Trish Greenhalgh, professor of primary health care at the University of Oxford, has said.

Cambridge’s Labour MP Daniel Zeichner said: “The guidance on face coverings and masks coming from the government is, like many of their messages, muddled. People want clear, evidence-led policies, rather than ones made up on the hoof which react to the amount of PPE in the country rather than what would be safest.”