The Police Federation of England and Wales, along with six other police staff associations, have informed Government that they will not attend future Scheme Advisory Board (SAB) meetings. This is as a result of concerns around the lack of an adequate consultation process, looking into the discrimination of the 2015 CARE police pension scheme.

Initially set up to provide scheme specific pensions advice to Government, encourage best practice and increase transparency around police pensions, the SAB has consistently failed to provide an opportunity for meaningful engagement and discussion. There have been no examples of Government seeking advice from the SAB and very few examples of the SAB providing advice to the Government on these pressing issues.

In a letter delivered to the Home Secretary, signed by Police Federation National Secretary Alex Duncan, along with secretaries and presidents from the Police Superintendents’ Association, Police Federation for Northern Ireland, Chief Police Officers’ Staff Association, Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, Scottish Police Federation and the Superintendents’ Association of Northern Ireland, the decision was made to halt any future meetings with the SAB until the opportunity for meaningful and transparent consultation around police pensions is provided.

The consistent failure of the SAB to deliver proper consultation to rectify the unlawful discrimination caused by Government policy runs the real risk of further litigation being required to enable a solution to the current situation.

Read the full letter here.

An illustration of unfairness caused to members across the police pension schemes can also be found here.