‘We are still people’: call for a better deal for inspectors

2 July 2025

Detectives in the inspecting ranks are working an average of 52.5 hours a week across the Force, a new internal survey has revealed.

On the back of a nationwide survey, Northamptonshire Police Federation workplace representative Ben Howe carried out his own poll among his detective inspector and chief inspector colleagues, and is now calling for them to get a better deal on working hours.

“Of course, every rank and role is being pushed at the moment, but I now know from both lived experience and research that DIs and DCIs are certainly being hit hard,” Ben explained.

“I think the police’s vacancy factor is one cause, as it creates an operational burden which only worsens the more specialised and management-based a role is, and that’s where you see a lot of these extremely high hours come in.

 

 

“Colleagues are reporting a culture of expectation to work excessive hours, so it becomes even more difficult to find cover and take time off. You can become a single point of failure, where your burn-out has a knock-on effect on the people around you.”

In December the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) released the findings of its own inspectors’ survey and this prompted Ben, who had heard officers around him saying they were working to excess, to carry out his own localised version among 17 of his detective inspector and detective chief inspector colleagues.

His survey revealed that, based on a 17-week work period, every one of his respondents worked over the 40 hours a week agreed for the rank, with an average coming in at 52.5 hours a week.

Within the much larger response base of the PFEW survey, over two-thirds of respondents reported working up to 20 hours over their agreed weekly hours across a four-week period.

Overworked

“As a DI, I definitely feel overworked myself and I knew that was the case for many of my colleagues, so to see that quantified in my survey was very useful,” Ben said.

“It was also encouraging for the numbers to line up with national findings when it comes to working hours beyond the standard agreement, when you consider my survey was based over a considerably longer work window.”

Ben’s research could raise questions as to how much more excessive working may have been flagged up in the PFEW survey had it covered a greater number of weeks – with it possible for the 67 per cent who reported working up to 20 hours a week extra to be even higher.

As for overworking, over 20 extra hours a week, the PFEW survey found detectives at inspector rank were more likely to work an extra 21 to 40 hours a week (28 per cent) than non-detectives (20 per cent).

Ben’s survey, which was carried out among 15 DIs and 2 DCIs, revealed an upper range recorded at 65 hours’ work a week.

The survey also showed DIs and DCIs in the Force were owed an average of 18.1 flexi-time hours.

Over-time

Under the 1994 Police Negotiating Board (PNB) Agreement, inspectors working over-time are only entitled to flexi-time hours, whereas constables and sergeants can accept financial compensation or time off in lieu (TOIL).

Any outstanding flexi-time balance is reduced to 16 hours for the inspecting ranks if the hours are not used within 16 weeks. TOIL can be banked for a much longer period.

“The highest amount of flexi-time owed among my colleagues was 35 hours, which is sizeable, to say the least,” said Ben.

“And it’s not just that – it’s then too logistically difficult to actually use these up, and they eventually get taken away from you.

“This unfairness from all angles just feels like the norm, perhaps because our current regulations have been in place for so long. But it needs to be remembered we are still people.”

Ben believes working excessive hours regularly has an impact on physical and mental health and wellbeing as well as work.

The 40-year-old, who has been an inspector for six years, says this then feeds into a landscape where more inspectors are ‘walking away from the vocation’.

Inspector

He has raised the findings with the Force’s heads of department via the Crime and Justice Joint Negotiating and Consulting Committee, while the national Federation is using its own survey report to shape conversations around regulations.

“I think the Fed can also have a voice by emphasising the need for forward planning to counter this vacancy factor we’re carrying in the Crime and Justice Command,” Ben added.

“On an individual level, I want branch members to know if they are struggling in the inspector ranks, with working hours, unfair treatment, wellbeing or anything else, they can always reach out to me – as a Fed rep, my door is always open.”

In addition to the findings on excessive hours, Ben’s survey showed DIs and DCIs were concerned about not being able to focus on their operational or day job roles due to covering gaps in other duties.

Chair of Northamptonshire Police Federation Sam Dobbs echoed Ben’s comments, arguing that the 1994 Police Negotiating Board (PNB) Agreement is ‘no longer fit for purpose’.

He said: The inspecting ranks provide the hour-by-hour command of a Force, which is a huge responsibility as they make decisions which impact our members and the community we serve.

“In the 30 years since their pay and conditions were changed, the world has changed and their current situation is no longer fit for purpose. This is well evidenced nationally by PFEW and locally by Ben’s findings and issues for the inspecting ranks, in which we’ve had to intervene in recent years.”

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