Police officers have suffered a 20 per cent real-terms pay cut since 2010. With the current cost of living crisis, last year’s pay freeze and without knowing if our members will receive an increase in their pay this year or not, now is not the time to increase Police Federation of England and Wales subscriptions.

PFEW, however, is also facing increased costs. Soaring inflation, upcoming litigation and the financial health of our National Reserves Fund means we need to at least start to have an open and honest conversation on this subject with Federation Representatives to make sure that there is a strong, viable Federation fighting for our members for years to come. Annual Conference gave us the opportunity to do just that.

It is worth highlighting that PFEW subscriptions have only increased once in the last decade as we have looked to support our members through the financial obstacles highlighted above by absorbing increased costs and not passing them on to officers.

On such an important issue, PFEW took the view conference delegates should be given the opportunity to hear the rationale for any proposed future increase in subscriptions immediately.

We care passionately about the views of our members which is why hearing from delegates at conference – their representatives  – on this matter was vital.

On that basis, it was agreed to bring a motion to conference this year for discussion. This motion looked at future options for an increase in subscriptions on the basis that it would only be introduced once it has been confirmed by the Government that our members will receive a pay increase. An increase of two per cent would roughly equate to an additional cost of 30p per month. 

The motion: “This Conference supports increasing the rate of all types of PFEW subscriptions effective from 1 September 2022, in line with the percentage uplift to Police pay for 2022-23”, was supported by Annual Conference.

Vote overview:

• Yes: 221 
• No: 170 
• Abstain: 6

Total votes 397

You can watch the full session discussing the motion here.