Police officers in England and Wales will be ‘fully justified in feeling further betrayed’ by the Government’s recent zero per cent pay offer after new figures revealed a large annual hike in UK average pay of 7.4 per cent.

Ché Donald, National Vice Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW), reacted angrily to the release of Office for National Statistics (ONS) statistics today which also highlighted a record high in the number of UK job vacancies.

 The new figures showed growth in average total pay (including bonuses) was 8.8 per cent, while it was 7.4 per cent for regular pay (excluding bonuses) in the period between April to June 2021. This was described as evidence the ‘world of work continues to rebound robustly’ by ONS deputy statistician Jonathan Athow.

Mr Donald said: “My colleagues will be dismayed by the news that some sectors are clearly receiving sky high wage rises while police officers receive nothing. They will be fully justified in feeling further betrayed by the unfairness of this news.

“Police officers who were on the frontline of the pandemic have already seen firefighters and local government workers in England given a 1.5 per cent increase.

“The ONS have now said the UK employment situation has been rebounding ‘robustly,’ and this new data will be viewed as further evidence all sectors were not treated equally by this government.

“It is yet another example of why we have lost confidence in a government which deliberately took full advantage of our unique status as public servants without the same employment rights as other members of society.”