Kent Police Federation shares an update on pensions issue

5 July 2019

“The primary objective of the Police Federation of England and Wales should be the return of police officers to the pension scheme conditions they joined the service on.”

Following the rejection of the Governments right to appeal the court’s decisions over pensions there has understandably been a flurry of statements being issued as to what the Government should do. The Government have, for now, simply indicated they will issue their resolution to the court’s decision at the end of July.

As Kent Police Federation (KPF) members would expect, the executive officers in Kent have watched with interest the statements come out and we have sought further information on Kent Federated members behalf. This is to ensure the position we arrive at as Kent Police Federation, is based on fact and is accurate and reflects what our members want. We have considered when to issue a position statement but felt that to release a statement when the Governments proposed resolution is unknown would be foolhardy and would disadvantage our members.

However, the media activity of the past few days and the wishes of those Kent members who have contacted us so far means, quite rightly, that we issue a statement on this matter now.

The key point is that KPF act solely on behalf of Kent federated members. We therefore encourage Kent federation members to tell us what they want on this issue. To do this Kent members should use their kent.pnn email address to send their view to the federation.pnn email address. We will then take these views and make the representations that our members want us to at the National Council meeting next week in Birmingham.

As the Kent Federation Chairman writing on behalf of the Kent Federation Executive I would like to make three fundamental points about the pensions issue,

1. Kent Police Federation has never wanted or supported the Governments changes to police pensions. We will never support the changes they made.
2. The primary objective of the Police Federation of England and Wales should be the return of police officers to the pension scheme conditions they joined the service on.
3. As Kent Police Federation we were not consulted over either of the statements made to date by the national Police Federation concerning pensions and as a result we do not endorse those statements as published.

Please take this opportunity to engage, tell us your views as Kent Federation members and we will make those representations on your behalf,

Thank you

Chris Carter
Chairman
Kent Police Federation