Hampshire Police Federation Chairman Alex Charge said: “It was important that we challenged this with the force as officers expected this in time for their Christmas pay packets.

“These are colleagues who commit to specialist training and are sent for deployments such as XR and to other forces for Royal Weddings and big events such as the IOW Festival.

“They can be deployed away from home for extended periods at short notice, where they are subject to higher public scrutiny and often protracted shifts.

“This was raised by Insp Sean Duffy one of our Federation Reps and myself who are both Public Order Commanders and supported Supt Bel Berry from our Joint Operations Unit.

“It’s a good result.”

Officers need to have updated Public Order with their SAP number prior to the end of November to receive the payments in time for Christmas.

The payments will then move to every financial rather than calendar year.