![](https://emergencyservicestimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ESS-Button-resized.png")
Giving evidence to a committee of MPs, West Sussex fire chief, Sabrina Cohen-Hatton said that the threshold for involving the police does not match the harassment that senior leaders experience and that MPs should consider changes to the law.
In the evidence session held on 1 May, the third one as part of the Home Affairs Committee inquiry into the fire and rescue services, Cohen-Hatton answered questions about culture and values. She is the improvement lead for the National Fire Chiefs Council.
During the wide ranging exchange, Cohen-Hatton shared her own personal experience of abuse and harassment from outside of the fire and rescue service. She said that “public service should not be synonymous with public abuse”, adding that “when you look different” it can “challenge people’s expectations.”
“I myself have had to have police intervention twice, and one of those was recorded as a hate crime. The abuse and harassment have extended to my family as well. It is not acceptable.”
She went on to tell MPs that too many fire chiefs who have protected characteristics are also subject to harassment and abuse and that if “we are serious about cultural change within the fire and rescue service,” then the discussion needs to “take account of the environment our staff are in 24 hours a day, not just the hours we have them with us.”
Towards the end of the 40 minute session, Cohen-Hatton asked for the committee to consider changes to harassment laws for those working in public service.
“At the moment, the threshold is incredibly high, and while the police have been incredibly helpful when we have approached them, the threshold probably does not match the harassment that senior leaders—particularly those of us who are different in some way—are experiencing. That is not just for senior leaders, actually; that is for people throughout the services as well. None of us should have to experience that kind of harassment because of the work that we choose to do to help people.”
The Chair of the Committee, Dame Diana Johnson, asked Cohen-Hatton whether the fire leaders in Shropshire should have been suspended for sending vile WhatsApp messages about their own staff. They remain, at the time of writing, in office. Cohen-Hatton wouldn’t be drawn on the specifics but responded, “What I would say with certainty is that if that were to have happened in my service, a disciplinary investigation would absolutely be happening as a result.”
When pressed by the Chair at the end of the evidence session for an answer to the question whether the fire and rescue service is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic, Cohen-Hatton would not be drawn, saying she needed the data to determine the answer.
“I am the national lead for improvement, but I do not have the data in front of me that would enable me to say that another fire and rescue service is institutionally sexist, racist or misogynistic. You would have to ask each individual chief that.”
The committee has concluded the oral evidence sessions and has also received written evidence including a four page letter from former London Fire Brigade Deputy Commissioner, Rita Dexter.
All information relating to the inquiry can be found on the Home Affairs Committee website.
Read more about the work of the inquiry from the first evidence session in our article from 4 March, MPs discuss fire service culture and ask if HMICFRS is fit for purpose.
