Home Office criticised over delay with officer pay award response

11 March 2019

Tony Wetton says the Home Office is failing to take the police pay review process seriously after it delayed issuing its response to the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB).

And the Derbyshire Police Federation chair has agreed with the national Federation chair who has said the response, a month later than it was expected, was ‘barely worth waiting for’.

“We are a month further down the line but no further forward with the Government in terms of a sign that they recognise and want to adequately pay our hard-working members,” Tony said. “This response does not take the needs of our members seriously – it really was barely worth waiting for.”

The Federation, in a joint submission with the Superintendents’ Association, put forward evidence of the need for a three-year pay deal, comprising of a five per cent uplift in police officer pay this year, in 2020/21 and again in 2021/22, as a start on the road to remedying years of below-inflation pay awards.

However, in its PRRB submission the Home Office said it will only make £70 million available. This equates to a pay rise of just 1.3 per cent if spent over a 12-month period, and less than the recent 2.7 per cent increase awarded to MPs.

National chair John Apter said: “I wish I could say it was worth waiting for. I wish I could say it had taken the additional weeks to read our published evidence and concede that, in the face of such comprehensive research and analysis, it had decided to agree with us and suggest officers receive five per cent per year for each of the next three years. I wish I could, but I can’t.

“Unfortunately, we have waited an additional month to see nothing more than a Home Office PR list of supposed achievements, and no firm recommendations on police pay.”

He continued: “Even the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) has done better than 1.3 per cent, as its submission includes options of up to 4.5 per cent this year. Given that the NPCC say this, maybe we can take some hope from the fact the Home Office states it will ‘undertake another assessment of affordability’.”

The Federation, the national chair pointed out, has written to the PRRB to express its ‘anger, disappointment and concerns’.

Read the PFEW and Superintendents’ Association submission.

The Home Office submission.