Police in Essex have handed out more than 900 fines to Covid rule breakers.

While appearing before the Government's Joint Committee on Human Rights Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington revealed the force had spoken to 37,000 people around the rules.

From that 929 fines have been issued.

The committee was discussing issues around the fast changing Covid laws during the last 12 months.

Human rights barrister Kirsty Brimelow said people were “confused” over restrictions put in place in a bid to curb the pandemic.

Mr Harrington said officers had "reacted quickly" to changes in rules and the law.

He said in Essex officers had worked to "warn and explain" to members of the public.

"The officers themselves are concerned around their health and their safety," he said.

"They have been out there doing this when people have rightly been anxious, upset and sometimes angry.

BJ Harrington outside Basildon Police Station

BJ Harrington outside Basildon Police Station

"All of the officers saw people in the hospitals in Italy, we saw the hospitals, certainly here in Essex [being under pressure], and they have still come to work and still been out there with all of the difficulties.

"I am really proud of what they do and I think the public should be as well.”

Assistant chief constable Owen Weatherill, of the National Police Chiefs’ Councils’ National Police Co-ordination Centre, told the committee figures suggested police were in most cases interpreting the laws properly by speaking to the public first and encouraging them to follow the rules before moving to enforcement as a last resort.

Mr Weatherill suggested confusion in some cases was “driven by some of the Government guidance which was at odds with the regulations themselves”.

He added: “The regulations are quite definitive, Government guidance on occasion has not been quite as clear as it perhaps needs to be to assist with interpretation of that.”