Hampshire Pay Announcement

24 July 2019

A pay increase of 2.5 per cent for police officers has been announced by the Home Office.

This follows recommendations made by the Police Pay and Remuneration Body (PRRB) which the Home Office has accepted.

This is the highest pay rise for police officers since 2010, and will come into effect as of September 1, 2019. It equates to around an extra £1,000 of pensionable salary per year for a constable. (This illustrative figure takes into account salary plus allowances).

As well as the pay rise, which is applicable across all ranks, the Government has announced:

• An increase in the on-call allowance from £15 to £20 per 24-hour period for all federated ranks;
• A 2.5% uplift in the dog handlers’ allowance;
• A 2.5% uplift in London weighting;
• No change for apprentice and degree holder progression pay; which means those joining the service will continue to receive the current incremental pay rises through their probationary period.

Hampshire Police Federation Chair Alex Charge has been working with other federation boards from across our region to negotiate thee south east allowance being paid in full. This formed part of the national submission to the PPRB. *

The PRRB declined the submission and commented:

“We agree that the London and South East Allowances should be considered together in a coherent way in the planned NPCC review of allowances that will be part of the reform programme.”

Despite the disappointing decision to refer the South East Allowance (SEA) to the National Police Chiefs Council pay review, we have been working with the force finance director, Richard Croucher, and our chief constable to get the current SEA index linked.

Since its inception, the SEA has reduced in value in real terms and now is worth approximately £400 less than it was when it was introduced in 2001.

Index linking will stop that decline and allow us to start discussions around how we return it to its original real terms value.

We will update you as this progresses.

* Officers in eight forces can receive the South East Allowances as compensation for living in the areas with the highest living costs. In the Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent,Surrey and Thames Valley this allowance is worth up to £3,000 per annum, and up to£2,000 per annum in Bedfordshire, Hampshire or Sussex. The upper limits on the South East Allowances were increased by £1,000 in 2016. However, the NPCC explained that no additional funds were given to forces to pay for the increase, and only three forces increased it when given the flexibility to do so – Surrey and Sussex by £500 and Bedfordshire by £1,000.