Ian Saunders

Ian is a Greater Manchester Police officer and represents colleagues from the Northwest of England on the National Board. He also became the National Equality Lead for the Federation in January 2022. He has been a representative since 2011, initially as a member of my Constables’ Branch Board, before spending four years as the equality lead for the GMP Federation. Throughout his career he has worked in a variety of related roles, including a secondment to ACPO (now NPCC) following the “secret policeman” documentary and the Commission for Racial Equality’s formal investigation of the police service, and three years with the national diversity team at the National Policing Improvement Agency (now the College of Policing).

He is pleased that he can now use the experience he gained in both operational and strategic equality-related roles for the benefit of our members as the national equality lead. Ian believes that The Police Federation has been at the forefront of pushing for better working environments for our members which are free from harassment and unlawful discrimination, where flexible working is understood to be a right for certain officers, and where disabled police officers are supported to enable them to continue contributing to their teams. His role is to support local Equality Leads in all 43 forces to ensure every Federation member works in an environment free from discrimination, and with terms and conditions that respond to their diverse and individual needs.