7. Submissions on Behalf of the National Police Chiefs’ Council by Mr Phillips KC

Mr Phillips: My Lady, the National Police Chiefs’ Council is a national co-ordinating body which represents all UK police forces, and in this Inquiry it’s a core participant not just in this module but also in Modules 1, 2A, 2B and C, and in that capacity it represents UK policing; no individual police force or police officer is a core participant.

The functions of the NPCC include the co-ordination of national operations, the co-ordination of the national police response to national emergencies, the co-ordination of the mobilisation of resources across force borders, and the national operational implementation of standards and policy as set by the College of Policing and government.

The NPCC is led by a full-time chair elected by the organisation’s membership. Its primary decision-making body is the Chief Constables’ Council, which is made up of the chief constable or a chief officer representative of each member organisation. It allows member forces to reach agreement on issues of national application, to ensure best practice, and the adoption of a joined-up approach.

However, the chief officers of each force retain their operational power and independence and may derogate from Council’s decisions, and this reflects the fundamental point that the NPCC has no operational directive powers in relation to forces. It cannot instruct a force or an individual officer to take action or to refrain from acting. Operational policing decisions remain the responsibility of force leads and individual officers, including in the context of a national emergency.

Now turning to the issues with which this Inquiry is concerned, Operation Talla was the name given to the UK policing’s response to the pandemic. It was established in March 2020 when, in the early stages of the crisis, the NPCC recognised that the police’s strategy for the pandemic would require a co-ordinated national approach.

As everyone in this room knows, the pandemic created challenges in every aspect of public and private life. Policing and police officers faced many such challenges as the pandemic affected every part of the service. Police officers and their leaders had to adjust to novel conditions, without any idea of how long they would last, of how far police resources would be diminished through isolation or infection, and do what they could to ensure they were able, so far as possible, to discharge their usual duties and functions whilst also paying proper regard to their responsibilities for the safety and welfare of officers and staff.

My Lady, Operation Talla was an unprecedented national response to this unprecedented situation. During the course of the pandemic, the work of Operation Talla covered just about every area of policing and deployed all available resources of the NPCC.

As you know, the police were one of the key frontline organisations dealing with the day-to-day impacts of the pandemic on members of the public and on local communities, whilst also dealing with its impact on the police workforce and on normal policing activity, as well, of course, as on their own families and households.

Now, in this module, the Inquiry has decided to focus on the enforcement of Covid-19 regulations. However, at all stages of the pandemic, the work of the NPCC and of Operation Talla encompassed far more than that in terms of the co-ordination of the national policing effort.

Moreover, the NPCC played no direct role in the enforcement of the regulations. As I’ve explained, the NPCC has no operational command or directive powers in relation to forces or individual officers. Enforcement remained at all times the responsibility of individual officers and forces.

However, a vital aspect of the NPCC’s work during the pandemic was the drawing up and dissemination of guidance and of clear and accurate operational briefings on a wide range of issues to all forces and, through forces, to police officers and staff. As part of that work, the NPCC worked with the college to produce and circulate briefings on the practical application and effect of the Covid-19 regulations.

My Lady, the key guidance issued by the NPCC and the college in March 2020 for achieving compliance with these regulations was the four Es approach: engage, explain, encourage, enforce. The message was simple: enforcement was the last resort, after the first three Es had been undertaken.

This guidance of course reflected another fundamental point, which is that in this country we have policing by consent. The task faced by the police in the pandemic was to encourage the public to comply with regulations which were judged by government to be in everyone’s best interests and which were also designed for their protection, whilst at the same time retaining their trust. That was a formidable assignment.

The four Es guidance remained in place throughout the pandemic and was regularly referred to in operational briefings and in public statements. However, it did not include specific details on how to approach each of the steps or on how, when or at what stage or speed to move from one step to the next. Those questions were always for individual officers on the frontline.

That said, the guidance reflected the core recognition that compliance with restrictions optimised public safety and, as I’ve noted, that enforcement was the last resort.

But there was in this one important constant, namely that it was and remained the duty of the police to enforce the law. It was no part of their remit to enforce government policy per se, still less to enforce government guidance.

My Lady, the provisions of the Coronavirus Act and the related regulations led the police service into the area of public health policing, which was largely uncharted territory, and brought with it a recognised risk of impact on the perception of and on public trust in policing.

Moreover, as is well known, there were frequent changes to the legal framework in which the police had to operate by way of the introduction of new or amended regulations, often at very short notice.

Meeting all these challenges required and received an exceptional response from policing. For the duration of the health emergency presented by the pandemic, flexibility and resilience were needed throughout the service as it adapted to the novel responsibilities conferred on it and sought to keep the public safe.

That’s all I wish to say at this stage, my Lady. The NPCC will continue to assist the Inquiry in any way it can.

Lady Hallett: Thank you very much indeed, Mr Phillips.

Mr Sheldon, I think you’re over there.