British police officers must prove their fitness in annual tests or have their pay docked after a survey found that 53 per cent were overweight and one in 100 was morbidly obese, a review concluded today.
The government-commissioned report into police pay and conditions suggested that officers who failed a fitness test three times should be disciplined and could lose 8 per cent of their salary, as much as £3,000 for some.
It follows a survey of more than 11,500 staff on London's police force which found that 44 per cent were overweight, 19 per cent obese and 1 per cent morbidly obese, the report said.
The review, which comes as the government seeks to make cuts of some 20 per cent to police budgets as part of austerity measures, recommended other wide-ranging changes which would
allow officers to be sacked, cut starting salaries, raise the pension age and require staff to have better qualifications.
The proposals, while generally welcomed by chief constables, have not gone down well with ordinary officers who are facing pay freezes, higher pension contributions and a cut in numbers.
"Police officers have had enough of the constant state of uncertainty and the deliberate, sustained attack on them by this government," said Paul McKeever, chairman of Police Federation of England and Wales.
"The service cannot take any more; enough is enough."
Reuters