Tories target police regulation

The Conservatives have pledged to restore "the heroism that has traditionally defined the police" by reforming health and safety laws to enable officers to put public safety first.

Shadow home secretary David Davis announced on Thursday that a Tory government would change existing legislation to enable officers to better deal with an emergency.

He pointed to a number of cases where health and safety concerns had prevented police from stopping a crime.

"Red tape and regulation are holding the police back," he said. "Too often right-minded officers are weighed down by the suffocating swelter of form-filling, box-ticking and bureaucracy.

"This has fed a health and safety culture that makes the police less healthy, and the public less safe.

"In some areas, officers can't throw out a life-belt in an emergency without first conducting an assessment of the risk to themselves."

He added: "This nonsense has got to stop. Today, I can announce that a Conservative government will change the law to ensure that, when officers respond to an emergency, they put public protection above all other considerations.

"Labour has undermined the heroism that has traditionally defined the police. A Conservative government will restore it."