Our Aim
Our campaign seeks to amend Section 50 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 to include Special Constables among those afforded the statutory protections to take unpaid time off work to fulfil their duties.
UPDATE: 08/02/25
ASCO succeeded in gaining cross-party support from Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs at the committee stage to support the amendment to S50 of the Employment Rights Act to include Special Constables, however despite the Labour members seeing benefits they weren’t swayed to support the amendment. Rather than it being voted off the table, we were granted the opportunity to withdraw it due to lack of support, to allow us to pursue other approaches and bring this back for debate at a later point in the process. The Private Members Bill is still being pursued but is unlikely, on its own, to achieve the changes sought given it didn’t succeed in being read on its debut slot.
We have now launched a petition to show the level of support we have, to help persuade ministers to act. If you have 10 seconds spare, please sign our public petition and if you have 120 second spare, please email your local MP using our handy templates below, seeking support on this issue.
A huge thank you to all the MPs, PCCs Chief Officers, NPCC members and wider stakeholders who have been so supportive to this campaign and recognising the inequality shown to our amazing volunteers.
If you are interested in helping ASCO around this and other areas, please check out our vacancies page for details.
Many thanks,
Team ASCO
UPDATE: 03/12/24
ASCO has reached out to every single member of parliament, from across the political spectrum to seek their backing to make the proposed amendment. Several MPs have already confirmed their support for our campaign but we still need more to ensure the amendment gets past the Committee Stage (due to end 21st January 2025).
We have six Police & Crime Commissioners who have vouched their support for our Special Constabularies being afforded this protection, and we are working with the remainder to make them aware and seek their influence.
We believe this goes beyond party politics and so are calling on all MPs to support our Special Constables, if you want to help, please email your MP using the links found further down this page.
Many thanks,
Team ASCO
We need your support
We urge you to support our campaign to recognise Special Constables under Section 50 of the Employment Rights Act, and in doing so support making our streets safer whilst recognising the valuable contribution made to our society by these incredibly brave individuals who go out of their way to volunteer as fully warranted police officers and all the challenges that brings to them and their loved ones.
If you have not already done so, please email your MP using our handy template and copy us in at [email protected]
If you have already written to your MP, but not yet received a response please chase them up with this letter and copy us in on your email and their response at [email protected]
Please sign our public petition to ensure this gets the recognition is deserves from our elected officials.
What is a Special Constable?
The Special Constabulary is a force of warranted, uniformed volunteer police officers.
Each Special Constabulary is hosted within a Police Force, for example the Metropolitan Special Constabulary (MSC) is hosted within the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).
Special Constables are unique among policing and other volunteering roles as they have full police powers and directly supplement the regular service, attending the same frontline calls.
They fulfil this role alongside their regular colleagues, and members of the public are generally unable to distinguish between them. However, Special Constables are present in their communities on their days off, often on an unpaid basis, carrying out their full responsibilities.
The majority of Special Constables (SC) assist in the delivery of effective frontline and operational policing. However, there are an increasing number performing specialist roles such as roads policing, cybercrime, rural crime, public order duties etc.
As a guide, most forces currently expect their Special Constables to regularly provide an average of at least 16 hours of volunteering duties per month.
Benefit to our Communities
Our communities hugely benefit as the current 6,481 serving Special Constables significantly enhance local and national policing efforts through the number of hours we could contribute, whilst making the voluntary role more attractive to those who are concerned about fitting this role into their lives on top of employment which in todays cost of living has to be their priority.
Each year, despite there being no statutory right for our Special Constables to time off, their extensive commitment to frontline policing amounts to ~3 million hours annually generating an estimated value of £85-90 million to the UK. This significantly boosts the capacity of police forces capability to meet their priorities amidst the growing demand whilst addressing the critical challenge of fostering public trust and engagement within communities.
Our Special Constables are regularly working extensive hours, and their right to rest periods under the Working Time Regulations from both roles are being impacted. On their “days off” they are actively engaged in physically and mentally demanding roles within their communities supporting the National Police Vision 2030, to build trust and confidence in policing.
Right to time off for public duties for comparable roles
Currently, s50 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 sets out the “Right to time off for public duties” for those performing the following voluntary public duties are entitled to a reasonable amount of time off to perform the following role, whilst protecting their overall employment rights
and ensuring their health and wellbeing under the associated Working Time Regulations:
• a magistrate (also known as a justice of the peace)
• a local councillor
• a school governor
• a member of any statutory tribunal (for example an employment tribunal)
• a member of the managing or governing body of an educational establishment
• a member of a health authority
• a member of a school council or board in Scotland
• a member of the Environment Agency or the Scottish Environment Protection agency
• a member of the prison independent monitoring boards (England or Wales) or a member
of the prison visiting committees (Scotland)
• a member of Scottish Water or a Water Customer Consultation Panel
• a trade union member (for trade union duties)
Letters
Letter to MP if you’ve written to them and had no response (include the research dossier below)
Research Dossier (include in both of the above letters to MPs)
For more information
For any further information, or press enquiries please contact us: [email protected]