PFEW Conference 2025 Panel
The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) has called for the mandatory recording of all police officer suicides and attempted suicides.
PFEW said the lack of official data meant policing had ‘no real understanding’ of the scale of the crisis facing its workforce.
The appeal came during an emotive session on day two of the Federation’s annual conference at the NEC in Birmingham.
The panel warned that the lack of consistent data collection was preventing policing from understanding and confronting the issue of officer suicide and attempted suicide.
The Federation recently worked with its local branches to try to build a picture of the numbers of officer suicides and attempted suicides
Conference was told that while two of the country’s largest forces could not supply their branches with figures, PFEW found that 56 officers across England and Wales took their own lives between 2021 and 2024.
Of those, 34 were under criminal or misconduct investigation at the time of their death, conference was told.
In the same period, a further 120 officers reported suicidal thoughts or attempts, 71 of whom were under investigation.
Conference was told the findings suggested a ‘causal link’ between lengthy disciplinary processes and officer mental health.
PFEW national board member Paul Williams said: “How can a criminal be arrested, prosecuted, sentenced and released faster than a police officer can have a misconduct case resolved?
“The pressure is immense. Officers are left isolated, their routine stripped away, often for years. It’s an incredibly lonely place to be.”
The Office for National Statistics categorises policing as a low-risk occupation for suicide, conference was told.
Panel members agreed this was misleading because forces do not routinely record suicides or attempts.
PFEW national board member Richie Murray said: “It’s the tip of the iceberg.
“If forces aren’t recording the data, we can’t present it, and the service can’t begin to understand or address the true scale of the problem.”
The panel highlighted the psychological strain officers face in their job, including heavy workloads, exposure to trauma, and staffing shortages. They warned that a misconduct notice can become ‘the final straw.
Conference was shown a moving video of Michelle Websdale, talking about the suicide of Sussex Police Federation representative Sergeant Ben Websdale.
It also heard the personal experience of Spencer Wragg, Hampshire Police Federation chair, who was part of the panel.
Spencer said: I’ve been there, I’ve been at the point of about to take my own life.
“Although most of the room would have been to a suicide, we know the implications of that, we know what that means to families, we see that devastation, we deal with it, it makes no difference to you when you’re in that place.”
Spencer, who now speaks on suicide prevention, said the lack of structured welfare support leaves many officers dangerously vulnerable.
“Suicide doesn’t discriminate,” he told delegates. “We deal with suicidal people daily, yet when it’s one of our own, we become uncomfortable, unsure how to respond. And meanwhile officers in crisis are still responding to 999 calls.”
The Federation is pushing for reforms, including risk assessments for officers placed under investigation, national minimum welfare standards, and the rollout of the free Stay Alive suicide-prevention app on all police work phones.
A motion has been tabled in the House of Lords to amend the Police and Crime Act to mandate recording of suicides and attempted suicides across policing.
Richie concluded: “My message to Chiefs and to politicians and policy makers is we need to look at the recording of figures.
“They need to get the statistics so it can be recognised what risk we are at.”
Meanwhile, PFEW chair Tiff Lynch continued on the theme of officer suicide and suicide prevention in her keynote speech to conference.
“I wish our branch reps didn’t have to deal with the aftermath of suicide within force,” Tiff said. “But they do.
“We talk about the job getting more dangerous on our streets. It’s even more dangerous in our heads.
“Every case is a tragedy. Every case sends a jolt right through the force.
We’ve had too many funerals. Too many wakes. Too many anniversaries. It’s got to stop.”
She used her speech to call for three changes.
The first was to echo the panel’s call for forces to record suicides and attempted suicides.
The second was to invest in prevention.
She said: “There is no excuse for any force not to bring in the STEP programme. Especially when so many of the tools are free or easy to adopt.
“And third, the link between the police misconduct regime and suicide needs to be acknowledged, accepted and then broken for good.”
Tiff told conference that the Federation was working with politicians on the issue.
She said: “Following a series of meetings with Lords, our amendment to the Policing and Crime Bill, making it the law to report suicide and attempted suicide, has been tabled by Lord Bailey of Paddington.
“It is supported by Peers from all parties and will be debated in Parliament early in the new year.”
You can watch today’s sessions and rewatch both days of the conference via the PFEW YouTube channel.