Why the Police Federation is calling for minimum 17% pay rise for members

10 March 2023

This week, the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) called for a 17 per cent pay increase for police officers, against a backdrop of industrial action by workers of other public services, which may beg the question ‘why 17 per cent and why now?’.

I am aware that Northamptonshire officers, leaders and residents may also be considering the implications of it and the sensibility of such a call in the current complex times for policing.

Two years ago, the PFEW withdrew from the Government-appointed and controlled Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) as it was no longer truly independent. Since then, the PFEW has struggled with identifying just how and what it should campaign for on behalf of its members, which is why it decided to commission an independent study by a leading non-partisan think tank – the Social Market Foundation (SMF).

This independent report was published on 9 March and considered at a meeting of PFEW’s National Council, which includes the Chairs and Secretaries of all the 43 force federations of England and Wales. The National Council members agreed the report gives absolute justification to call on the Government for a 17 per cent pay rise for police officers in 2023.

The SMF report revealed:

A landslide decline in police pay in the past 22 years was established by a fall of almost 20 per cent behind inflation between 2000 and 2022. Police pay has risen at barely half the rate of an average UK employee across the same period.
The decline makes the police an outlier amongst other protective services workers, public sector workers and all workers – these groups saw pay rises in real terms by 1 per cent, 14 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively
In the same period, the salaries of MPs rose from £48,371 to £84,144 and that of other public sector workers went up between 1 and 14 per cent in real terms.
The decline in police pay is likely due to the restrictions on police officers’ right to strike which now puts them, more than ever before, at a distinct disadvantage to all other workers, including other emergency service workers.
Police constable starting salaries have lagged behind earnings as a whole across the economy, which is particularly troublesome, given the high number of recruits in the national uplift programme to replace the police officers lost in previous cuts.
Finally, if these trends continue over the next five years, police pay would drop a further 4 per cent by 2027, whilst other private and public sector worker pay will rise.

For all these reasons, the PFEW is now calling nationally, and I am calling locally, for a 17 per cent increase for officers – not because this is a figure plucked out of the air, not because it seeks to treat police officers more favourably than the rest of the struggling groups of workers everywhere, but because 17 per cent merely allows us to catch up with our losses over 22 years.

Northamptonshire Police now has over 1,500 officers – the largest number the force has ever seen. But forces everywhere have a retention crisis alongside many other issues which are and will be the legacy of the unprecedented recruitment we have seen with forces competing to attract people to join policing.

This has been described and should be seen, as a true wake-up call for policymakers in the UK, because it also comes on the back of our national Pay & Morale Survey published in January 2023. The survey results described policing as being on a knife edge and at a crisis point. This latest report sharpens that knife edge. If you did not see the local version of the survey results, you can find it here.

A key factor in the discussions on police pay award is the ‘P-Factor’, which the SMF research suggests should be a figure offered in addition to their findings. The report references the unique obligations and responsibilities police officers experience related to other comparable roles. This includes their unique risk of exposure to physical and physiological harm, alongside restrictions placed on their professional and private lives. What this means is that the actual degradation of pay, described above, is actually higher and is not included in the 17 per cent pay rise consideration.

You can see the full SMF report here.

The questions that I ask all of us here at the Northamptonshire community to consider are:

Is this truly an acceptable situation which should be allowed to continue in our county and country? Can we truly just continue to bob along ignored by our political leaders and how would it further affect us in an already underfunded county?
Even if those who make decisions on pay are persuaded by the 17 per cent argument, how will this be funded in the Northants? The Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner has already increased local taxation for policing to the limit he is allowed, after consultation, to boost the police budget by £3m. It must be remembered that police officers are also affected by the consequent increase in our council tax.
Given that local police budgets have been set on only a 2 per cent pay increase and given that any pay increase would create a budget burden of £1.3m for every one per cent increase, how would anything above 2 per cent be affordable in Northamptonshire given that for most of the part, police pay increase falls upon the local commissioner and it is for the communities to come up with the funds? A 17 per cent pay rise would require around an extra £20 m to be found in a county where the local public pay a higher balance of the policing bill than many areas in comparison to the contribution from the central government.
Our Chief Constable has always been supportive of a meaningful pay increase. He has no power to increase our pay other than by targeting certain areas of policing or rewarding specific acts. Whilst this is divisive, we know that he is committed to seeking out such opportunities. He is already looking at using the powers he has and consults with us, but this will affect a very small minority of officers.
In the words of someone at the National Council meeting this week, which endorsed the call for a 17 per cent pay rise, ‘are officers correctly remunerated for not having industrial rights’?

I, therefore, call on our national politicians, and with support of our local politicians including our Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner to:

Consider the implications of this against the results of the local Pay & Morale Survey which revealed 96 per cent of Northamptonshire officers do not feel respected by the Government, 62 per cent do not feel valued by the public, 68 per cent would not recommend others to join the police service and 23 per cent are not proud to be part of the police service. These figures should shock all of us. They are unprecedented.
Meet with us to discuss how we progress these arguments so that we can agree on the problem even if we don’t agree on the solution.
Identify progress on the previous government’s commitments to reviewing the police funding formula which seems to disadvantage the Northamptonshire community in comparison to others. This would not only in itself allow for local officers to be paid more but would reduce some of the budgetary pressures.
See the bid for a 17 per cent pay rise not as a figure plucked out of the sky to create a headline but a well-thought-through figure to restart the debate on police pay in a context which no longer provides the protections offered to accommodate all the restrictions and peculiarities of being an officer of the crown and not an employee.
Ignore at the peril of all of us what is happening in policing at the moment. Doing nothing is not an option against a backdrop of younger members who ask daily why the PFEW do not allow consideration of seeking industrial rights.

Despite the recent horror stories besmirching the reputation of all officers, we rest on the shoulders of the giants and heroes who do amazing things every day with amazing values, and despite everything asked of them come back and do it all over again the next day.

This 17 per cent call needs to be understood and needs to be taken seriously and I will do what I can in my capacity as a local leader to address the needs of 1,500 members and as a proud member of the Northamptonshire community.

Sam Dobbs

Chair

Northamptonshire Police Federation