Police officers have recorded early signs of an increase in suicides and attempted suicides during the lockdown, MPs have heard.

Sgt Simon Kempton, the operational lead for Covid-19 at the Police Federation of England and Wales, which represents tens of thousands of rank-and-file officers, said it was too early to say if there was a clear pattern.

The remote hearing by the home affairs select committee also heard that about 13% of all police officers and staff were absent due to sickness, self-isolation or caring responsibilities, and that some forms of crime – such as burglary and other acquisitive offences – had dropped since the restrictions began.

Answering questions from the Labour MP Stephen Doughty about the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the police response to mental health callouts, Kempton said: “There are very early indications of an increase in suicide attempts and suicides – far too early to say if that’s a real trend, but there are early indications of that. Quite often the police are the agency who are trying to deal with that situation.”

He added: “One of the difficulties we’ve got as a police service is we’re losing staff to abstractions through self-isolation or sickness, so are the mental health services, so are social services, and it’s going to be all too easy for some of these people in real crisis to fall through the gaps as we see those staffing levels come under more burden, and it’s something we can’t lose sight of.

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“At the moment we are coping but we’re starting to see in some areas, particularly in specialist areas, that burden starting to rise as we lose staff.”

Ch Supt Paul Griffiths, the president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, told the committee that police officers were reporting an increase in mental health incidents.

“We’re still waiting to see the data on the mental health incidents which we will still be dealing with, but anecdotally from our members we’re starting to see a slight increase, and if we continue to keep these isolating strategies in place there is a risk that mental health issues will increase over the coming weeks and months,” he said.

“We’re well versed with what our role is in terms of supporting members of the community in terms of their mental health challenges, working with other agencies such as health and social care and local authorities. It’s a well trodden in terms of what we can do to maximise support for those individuals who are probably going to see increased and more intense pressure in terms of their wellbeing.”

Griffiths told the committee there was currently an absentee rate across the police estate of 13%. The total workforce as of September last year, the most recently available official statistics, was 205,000. Thirteen per cent would therefore equate to around 26,650 staff.

Answering questions from Tim Loughton, Griffiths said no forces were yet reporting a risk to service provision.

He said: “The absence rate is approximately 13% across the whole of the national establishment – that includes police officers and staff. Some of those will be sick, some of them will be self-isolating with symptoms, some of them will have caring responsibilities.

“Even with that capacity issue, none of the police forces are flagging up anything they can’t cope with at this stage.”

• In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.