Select Committee on Defence Written Evidence


Metropolitan Police Public Order Branch—CO11 & 12

CARE AND SUPPORT PROVISION FOR OFFICERS ATTENDING OFFICER SAFETY TRAINING (OST) AND PUBLIC ORDER TRAINING

1.  INSTRUCTORS

  The roles of instructor for OST and Public Order training can be separated into three distinct areas;

    (a)  CO11 OST trainers provide the initial training for student officers at Recruit Training School.

    (b)  Further developmental OST is provided to officers already on Borough Operational Command Unit (BOCU).

    (c)  Public Order training is only provided by CO12 training staff at the Metropolitan Police Service Training Centre (MPSTC) at Gravesend.

  The supervision and management of students by trainers is necessarily limited to the time that they are in the training environment. In the event of a welfare, discipline or personal issue arising whilst training, the individual would be dealt with on an ad hoc basis. Depending on the circumstances they would be dealt with by a training manager on site or referred back to their individual BOCUs or line management at Recruit Training School.

  The concept of "duty of care" receives heavy emphasis in all the activities within the remit of CO11/12. They are subject to stringent Health and Safety risk assessments and the training structures for all instructors and students reflect this.

2.  OST & MPSTC MANAGERS

  OST and MPSTC sergeants and inspectors are training managers with direct line management responsibility for their officers. They are also responsible for ensuring a safe training environment and correct delivery of the training packages to students.

3.  OST AT RECRUIT TRAINING SCHOOL

  OST is delivered to recruits during their initial training and carried out on site at Hendon and is compulsory. Safe working practices and health and safety and are given heavy emphasis throughout the training. The OST foundation training and safety protocol at Recruit Training School is shown below at Appendix B.

4.  OST ON BOCUS

  This is carried out at training facilities within individual BOCUs by experienced BOCU officers. This is of a developmental nature and should amount to at least 12 hours per annum. BOCU trainers have been trained by CO11 OST staff.

5.  PUBLIC ORDER TRAINING

  Public Order training is not currently provided to officers within the first two years of their service. However this policy will be changing shortly.

  The nature of the training requires numerous risk assessments for the all the activities carried out on site. These are fully compliant with Health and Safety legislation and available for scrutiny.



 
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