The Police Federation of England & Wales can confirm it has filed an application for Judicial Review alongside Chief Police Officers’ Staff Association (CPOSA) and the Police Superintendents’ Association (PSA) calling for a truly independent pay mechanism for police officer pay.

PFEW National Vice-Chair, Ché Donald, said: “The common theme with this Government is it does not value its police service, it does not recognise the financial hardships police officers are facing daily and has suppressed police pay to the point that there is very little difference between the national living wage and the hourly wage of a new starter.

“The current pay mechanism is just a white elephant, where Government ultimately decides what police officers cannot receive by way of fair remuneration. Our repeated attempts to address this fairly have been met with silence, after all, why would the Government want to change a system designed by them, run by them and with the final decision resting with them.

“This leaves us with no other alternative but to let someone else decide the merits of fairness, the judiciary.

“We have therefore launched an application for Judicial Review, along with Chief Police Officers’ Staff Association (CPOSA) and the Police Superintendents’ Association(PSA). It would appear the only time this Government responds is when legal action looms, otherwise, it will continue to subjugate police pay and ride rough-shod over police officers because we have no employment rights in pay disputes.

“As police officers, we are not being unreasonable in asking for a pay mechanism that acts independently. As public servants, MPs are happy to accept the recommendation of their own independent pay body as binding, all we ask is that they do the same with ours, or perhaps extend the remit of IPSA.”

Find out more about PFEW's pay campaign here.