Police and crime commissioners will be looking at whether officers convicted of serious crimes should forfeit their pensions, Cheshire's PCC has said.

The matter hit the national headlines earlier this year when there were calls for killer cop Wayne Couzens to be stripped of his police pension.

The former police officer was given a whole-life sentence for murdering Sarah Everard in 2021 while working for the Met.

At Friday's meeting of the Cheshire Police and Crime Panel, co-opted member Gemma Shepherd-Etchells asked the county's police commissioner, John Dwyer, for his views on the matter.

John Dwyer was Cheshire's First PCC, but had a four-year spell away. He returned to the role in 2021. (Image - John Dwyer in Poynton from David Rutley MP's Twitter)

"The police and crime commissioner (PCC) in Kent has lobbied ministers to change the rules relating to police officer and pension forfeiture…" she said. "The PCC in Kent wants to extend this to include instances where they've committed sexual offences."

Mr Dwyer said the current rules around pension forfeiture are clearly defined in legislation.

They relate to convictions for either an offence of treason, or one or more offences on the Official Secrets Act 1911 to 1939 where the offender is jailed for at least 10 years.

The second case is a criminal offence committed in connection with the person's service as a member of the police force and where the Home Secretary has certified this was either gravely injurious to the interests of the state or liable to lead to serious loss of confidence in public service.

The Conservative used to be a police officer in Nottinghamshire. (Image - LDRS)

Mr Dwyer told the panel meeting at Ellesmere Port: "It is important that any such changes to the forfeiture rules need to be made in such a way that ensures there is no ambiguity in how those rules are applied.

"I will be interested in understanding whether there could be scope for increasing the forfeiture to cover a number of serious crimes, whether committed in connection with work or not, and I will be discussing this matter in more detail with my colleagues through the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) to explore the consequences of any possible changes.

"So it's not straightforward, it is complex, but we're looking at what we can do with it."

He added: "Where it becomes complex is at what level of crime do we draw the line? It isn't easy to sort.

John Dwyer as photographed by Nub News. (Image - Nub News)

"And how different is it to anybody else's pension in public service, where they've committed crimes while in post?

"They're the sorts of very delicate and difficult issues which I think have got to be addressed and that's why I want to talk to my colleagues inside the APCC to determine what the combined approach is."

New recruits at Cheshire Police automatically enrol onto the police pension scheme.

Sandbach: Find more about police pensions on the GOV.UK website.

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