Chief Constables Under Attack For Trying To Reduce Officer Pay and Conditions

11 March 2026

Chief Constables are being “brazen” by trying to make it cheaper to keep officers on duty when they should be at home resting, the Chair of Norfolk Police Federation has said.

Andy Symonds was speaking after the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) made its submission to the police pay review body.

Police officers are currently entitled to a minimum four hours’ compensation at time and a half when they are required to work on a cancelled rest day or bank holiday, recognising the disruption to protected rest and family commitments.

But the NPCC has proposed paying officers at time and one-third, calculated in 15-minute increments, for the exact time worked. Their submission also seeks to tighten the rules around how cancelled rest days are re-rostered.

The Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) said that, with demand overwhelming most forces, policing is only viable because it places excessive burdens such as cancelled rest days on officers as a norm rather than exception. It warns that, in particular, public order policing depends on such surge capacity.

Andy said: “On behalf of my members here in Norfolk, I am angry and frustrated at the NPCC, who purport to speak on behalf of all Chief Constables. I will be challenging our Chief to ask if he agrees with the NPCC submissions to the pay review body that would make it cheaper for them to keep officers on at the end of their shifts into a period of rest.

“The current regulations act as a deterrent to Chiefs when they keep officers on when they should be at home resting. They wish to make it cheaper, because they know that we do not have enough officers to cope with the demand.

“Rather than deal with the cause of the issue, the Chiefs simply want to pay officers much less when this happens. We already see officers being kept on regularly, and this would only increase with these changes.”

Andy said that police leaders had “lots of warm words” about the demands of policing: including a lack of a fair funding settlement from the Government, and officers exhausted from working excessive hours. He added: “But rather than deal with this, they have chosen to take money out of officers’ pockets and keep them from going home to rest and spend time with their families.”

Andy continued: “Warm words do not solve the crisis around demand, numbers, pay and conditions. We need actions and solutions. We’ve seen a real-terms 21% drop in officers’ pay since 2010; this is another kick in the teeth for them.

“I hope the pay review body sees these recommendations from the NPCC for what they are: a brazen set of recommendations designed to make it cheaper to keep officers on shift, rather than dealing with the more complex issues of demand and police numbers, which are the reason officers are never off duty on time.”