Member

Following that charging decision, firearms officers laid down their arms. Noble Lords may recall that there were widely reported issues regarding morale in the force, recruitment of firearms officers and ensuring they knew they had the confidence of the Government and the public to do their jobs safely and securely. All those concerns were legitimate, but I ask noble Lords to remember, and the Government to bear in mind—it seems to have been overlooked in the conversations about this—that those firearms officers laid down their arms after the charging decision, not after the anonymity decision had been lifted. That is what happened. Initially, there was a storm about the anonymity—speculation, fear, concern, conspiracy theories and online campaigns. The officer was subjected to endless questions and issues around his and his family’s life. In fact, there has been no evidence that the lifting of the anonymity order caused any further problems for him than the initial lack of transparency, which raised suspicion and led the public to have fears and doubts.