About 50 officers from Avon and Somerset police were drafted in on their days off to help police US President Donald Trump’s recent UK state visit, it has been revealed.

Chief Constable Andy Marsh said the secondments were part of a national policing agreement but that his concern was for their “health and wellbeing and the impact on the mainstream policing services” in the force area.

He was responding to a question by police and crime commissioner Sue Mountstevens about the effects on Avon and Somerset of requests for assistance from other constabularies for major operations.

Mr Marsh said: “Policing in England and Wales is undertaken by 43 forces.

“Very often even the big ones, such as the Metropolitan Police, can’t cope with the operational demands put on them and will enact a protocol between chief constables called ‘mutual aid’.”

He said the National Police Operational Coordinating Centre in London brokered this agreement.

“With the recent Trump visit, we had about 50 officers taking part in it,” Mr Marsh continued.

“They were mainly specially trained officers around search and protest, rather than big numbers of officers dealing with public disorder.

“They were all employed on rest-day working.

“This means the funds you (Ms Mountstevens) make available to me to police Avon and Somerset were not in any way impacted upon because the money came from the Home Office.

“The consequences, though, are that those officers are not getting their rest days.

“They may be more tired, they’ve got less time with their families, they will be working away from home very long hours.

Ms Mountstevens said: “My concern is always when any of the politicians announce there are going to be extra officers on the street.

“There is no such thing.

“All we are meaning is those officers we’ve got are working rest days.

“We do not have a little room where we keep all these extra police just in case they get announced, so it does put a lot of pressure on our existing police officers.”

Mr Marsh replied: “We’ve had a reduction since 2010 of about 700 police officers.

“It takes over three years to recruit and train a police officer.

“So, the concept of additional police officers can only be delivered in one way — through working our existing cohort even harder."

The Chief Constable and the PCC were discussing issues including policing protests and road safety issues during a Facebook Live webchat on Tuesday, July 2.