The Police Federation of England & Wales welcomes today’s announcement that the new government has accepted the pay review body recommendation in full, and that police officer pay for 2024/25 will increase by 4.75% per cent across all ranks. This increase, coming on top of last year’s rise, goes some way to closing the gap between the 17 per cent real-term pay cut officers have suffered since 2010 as a result of successive below-inflation rises. It is disappointing, however, that the PRRB’s recommended increase was below that offered to other professions, given the unique status of police officers. The pay review body has ignored calls from the National Police Chiefs’ Council for officers to receive a 6% increase and made a recommendation which increases the differential between the pay of police and other public sector workers.

Calum Macleod, National Secretary of the Police Federation, said: “While we don’t believe that one group of public sector workers should be set against another, the pay review body recommendation shows that they do not understand policing and its needs. Poor pay and morale means police officers aren’t staying in the force and we are losing valuable experience from the service. The Federation is right to sit outside a process which does not recognise the role that police officers perform in society and the risks they take.”

Mukund Krishna, PFEW Chief Executive, said: “The underlying problem is a broken pay mechanism that does not allow for negotiation, only the imposition of a fixed pay award. In a recent poll, 98% of officers supported the Federation’s call for a return to collective bargaining with binding arbitration, and we look forward to working closely with the new government to fix the current system. It is also important that this pay award is funded by new money so that police chiefs aren’t forced to fund it through cuts to other essential services.”