In the coming weeks, the Home Office will announce this year’s police pay award.
Every year the Police Federation puts the case for fair pay to the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) – the independent body that makes recommendations to the Government on police officer pay and conditions - on behalf of members.
This year, the Federation submitted its most comprehensive and evidence-led case yet, including calling for a minimum 7 per cent consolidated pay award for 2026/27, followed by 7 per cent in each of the following two years.
National Secretary John Partington said: “This is not an arbitrary figure. It is based on the evidence police pay has suffered prolonged real-terms erosion since 2010. This decline is compounded by increased pension contributions, frozen tax thresholds driving fiscal drag and the rising cost of living.
“A single-year award will not repair the cumulative damage. That is why we are pressing for a multi-year settlement: so that you [members], and forces planning their budgets, can have certainty.”
The submission is built around mainly five interconnected arguments:
- The job has changed beyond recognition, but the pay framework has not
- New legislation, including the Crime and Policing Act, is adding yet more complexity: new offences, expanded digital and forensic evidential requirements, greater safeguarding obligations. None of this has been matched by pay reform.
- Officersface a level of risk and trauma that no other profession is asked to absorb
- The figures are stark. The Home Office recorded 47,482 assaults on constables in the year ending March 2025, which is a 2.8 per cent increase on the previous year. That is 130 officers assaulted every single day, 30 of whom sustain an injury. This cannot continue to be written off as the cost of doing the job.
- Officersare operating under unprecedented scrutiny
- Our December 2025 survey of 5,689 members found 85 per cent felt respect for their profession is reducing, 60 per cent indicated an increased negative impact on their own health and wellbeing, and 57 per cent felt the public was getting more confrontational and intentionally trying to ‘catch officers out’.
- The workforce is becoming less experienced
- The Police Federation presented evidence of significant early-years attrition and the loss of experienced constable-level leadership. Officers are being asked to take on more responsibility and more complex casework with entry requirements that have in some respects been lowered, not raised.
- Pay outside of policing
- Sectors that attract the skills of police officers in the private sector have seen significant pay increases since 2010. This is in comparison to the 22 per cent drop in police officer pay during that period. Headline private sector industry pay that utilise the skills and experience of officers has seen average wage increases of 67 per cent between September 2010 to November 2025.
Beyond the headline pay award, the submission to the PRRB also included a set of specific recommendations:
- Shortening the constable pay scale points, so early-career officers are recognised sooner for the responsibilities they carry from day one.
- Detective Allowance to address the persistent recruitment and retention crisis in investigative roles.
- Additional payment for inspecting ranks working beyond 48 hours per week.
- Removal of the discretion over South East and London allowances – so they are paid at their full rates, consistently.
- A shift alteration and roster disruption allowance and enhanced unsocial hours payments.
- Improvements to annual leave, introduction of long-service leave, and recuperation leave, and improvements to family leave, including day-one rights and enhanced pay.
- Court warning compensation irrespective of the 15-day notice threshold.
- We provided evidence to counter proposals from the NPCC that would see conditions of service weaken.
