10 November 2021

Chairman's reaction: Pay freeze is lifted, but now officers must see significant pay rise

Police officers must receive a significant pay rise next year when the public sector pay freeze is lifted, as some are “on the edge of poverty”, Dorset Police Federation has said.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that the pay freeze imposed last year would end in April 2022, but the amount of the rise is unknown and it may not keep up with inflation, which is currently 3.1% and is predicted to go above 4% by December. On average, police pay has fallen in real terms by 12.4% since 2010.

Dorset Police Federation Chair James Dimmack said: “In real terms we’ve had pay reductions over the past decade. Some officers are quite literally living on the edge of poverty. I know officers visiting food banks. One staggering statistic, which I couldn’t believe until I’d fact-checked it myself, is that police officers are the second most likely profession to have a pay-day loan.”

James said that giving police officers a pay rise would be “an excellent start” to helping to relieve the situation.

He said: “Pay and conditions are always important. But also we need to value our staff, we need to create an environment where they can flourish. In order to get that, we need to make sure they’re comfortable in their home lives, they’re comfortable in their work lives, they’ve got money to feed their families and they’ve got enough money to actually flourish within their jobs.

“The Chancellor has said the pay freeze is going to be lifted and we’re going to have a pay uplift, but how much that will be is a really important question, because something significant is required.”

When the current pay freeze was announced in July, the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) withdrew its support and engagement with the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB), saying it was “not fit for purpose”.

James said: “There needs to be a long-term plan to bring us back in line where we need to be, and that requires us to have a proper and significant voice within Government. We’ve recently withdrawn from the PRRB, quite rightly in my opinion, because we’re not being listened to. We’ve engaged in that process and consistently been ignored.

“We need an independent pay review body that properly represents what police officers deserve, and they really, really do deserve much more.”

James continued: “At our conference earlier this year, Priti Patel said she had our back. In policing, having your back is a really important statement, because that means your safety, your colleagues’ safety, and the public’s safety. We genuinely need the Government to have our back, and that means we need to be properly paid so we can get the right people and we can keep those people.”