Fed chair praises colleagues for turning Force around amid continuing policing pressures

2 November 2026

While policing has been left at the bottom of the Government’s list of priorities, Hertfordshire Police officers in have been working tirelessly to turn around their Force, says the Federation branch chair.

Luke Mitchell said the 2026 Police Federation of England and Wales's (PFEW) Pay and Morale Survey reinforced the organisation’s long-standing concerns about underfunding and lack of support for officers.

His comments come as Hertfordshire Police emerges from a period of change, with officers and staff working tirelessly to turn around the Force’s performance and restore its position among the best-performing forces nationally, particularly in solving crime.

Luke said: “I want to first praise the police officers and staff that have worked incredibly hard over the last 20 months.

“The force has gone through the largest change programme I’ve seen in my 25 years’ service.

“Officers have brought into the changes and worked incredibly hard, at speed, to ensure we have turned the Force around.”

Luke said that the Pay and Morale Survey findings reinforced the central theme and title of last month’s PFEW conference, the Real State of Policing.

“Policing is in a state,” Luke said. “It's been at the bottom of the list in terms of government priorities for a number of years.

“These figures play into what we've been saying as a Federation for a long time about the underfunding and under-support, and the lack of priority policing has been given.

“It has fallen year on year behind every single other part of the public sector.

Neglect

"That neglect has now borne true.

“Locally, chiefs and officers are trying their very best, but year on year things are getting worse with no end in sight”

“We're seeing the impact of year after year of austerity, poor pay settlements and underfunding in the public sector, especially in policing."

Almost all Hertfordshire Police respondents to the survey (95 per cent) do not feel fairly paid for the stresses and strains of the job (93 per cent nationally), and 80 per cent are dissatisfied with their overall pay and allowances (77 per cent nationally).

Some 17 per cent say they intend to resign within two years or as soon as they can, below the national figure of 21 per cent.

Luke said the financial pressures were sharper in the South East due to the higher cost of living

"I don't want to play politics with other parts of the country, but certainly in the South East we’re really starting to feel the effects of the cost of living rising, rent and mortgage increases, council tax increases, fuel duty and everything else.

“Officers are living outside the county and then having to travel in, and we’re aware of officers using food banks.”

South east allowance

The survey bears this out. Some 39 per cent of Hertfordshire officers say they struggle at times or frequently cannot meet their household's financial needs, against 30 per cent across England and Wales. Only Bedfordshire, at 47 per cent, has a higher proportion.

"We are struggling, and with Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire at the top of that list, that's a real alarm bell," Luke said.

"The South East Allowance needs to increase year on year. We did see an increase this year, but that needs to be consistent in every pay review settlement."

Luke said officers were not looking to leave policing because of pay alone.

"The impact the the job takes on mental health, people will be thinking it isn't worth the value of the pay you get,” he said.

“But, more importantly, police officers don't feel equipped to be able to do their job anymore."

The survey shows 79 per cent of Hertfordshire officers have experienced stress, low mood or anxiety in the last 12 months, in line with the national average 78 per cent.

Just over two-thirds (68 per cent) say they are too fatigued to carry out their duties, the same as the national figure.

Wellbeing support

Some 65 per cent rate the Force's wellbeing support as inadequate or requiring improvement, which is below the national figure of 72 per cent.

The survey also shows how far the job reaches into officers' lives outside work. Almost three quarters (74 per cent) of Hertfordshire respondents have had annual leave refused in the last 12 months, 12 percentage points above the national figure of 62 per cent. More than half (54 per cent) have had to cancel personal plans because of last-minute work requirements, and 76 per cent say fatigue has interfered with their family or social life in the last month.

Hertfordshire is better than the national picture on some measures, including cancelled rest days (45 per cent against 58 per cent) and feeling unsafe on duty because of staffing levels (46 per cent against 55 per cent).

Elsewhere, 45 per cent say their team has been fully staffed on very few or no shifts in the last three months (42 per cent nationally).

Luke said the demands on Hertfordshire Police officers were set to grow.

"We've got a big couple of years in front of us,” he said. “We’ve got the Oasis gigs at Knebworth coming up next September, where officers will struggle to take leave.

“But we've also got the Euro 2028 football tournament coming to this country and other national issues that will take a large proportion of additional pressure on policing.

Policing

“Anything that happens nationally ends up impacting locally."

Luke urged the county's MPs to get behind officers.

“I want to call out to our local MPs because we need their support on this,” he said.

“We regularly see complaints from MPs and others about our response and how we can deal with things effectively, but they need to understand the position policing has been put in."

Luke also criticised the lack of ministerial engagement with the Federation, particularly at last week’s PFEW Conference.

"When you see figures like the Home Secretary or the policing minister can't be bothered to come to the Police Federation Conference and have a useful dialogue and take questions from us, that shows how much they're really interested in policing,” he said.

"This isn't us banging the table. This is us trying to make sure we can continue to serve the public, because that's ultimately why we joined the police service.”

Diary

November 2026