Fed chair gives cautious welcome to pay rise - but there's more to do

30 July 2024

North Yorkshire Police Federation chair Rob Bowles says the system for determining police pay must change - despite a 4.75 per cent rise this year.

Rob has given a cautious welcome to the pay increase, describing it as a ‘step in the right direction’.

But he said that police pay was still well below where it was in real terms 15 years ago.

And he said that the announcement, which came on the same day junior doctors were awarded a 22 per cent pay rise, highlighted the need for a new, independent police pay mechanism.

Recommendation

Rob said: “We welcome that the government has accepted the recommendation of the Police Remuneration Review Board (PRRB).

“The 4.75 per cent increase, which follows last year’s 7 per cent rise, is a step in the right direction towards pay restoration, but our members’ pay is still well below where it was before austerity.”

Rob added: “IT is also disappointing that the PRRB recommendation was below the 6 per cent proposed by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, and below that offered to other public sector workers.

“For instance, it came on the day junior doctors were offered a 22 per cent rise, and while it’s not a case of setting one group of public sector workers against another, the pay review body recommendation shows that they do not understand policing and its needs.”

Members called on the Police Federation for England and Wales to campaign for industrial rights – specifically for a fair process of collective bargaining and binding arbitration – after a nationwide poll.

Rob said that the pay settlement underlined why it was a key issue for the Federation and members.

“The existing mechanism is broken,” he said. “We need a fair system of pay negotiation and arbitration that includes the voices of frontline police officers.

“At the moment, it doesn’t allow for negotiation which leaves us at the mercy of the government of the day and the fixed award they deem fit to impose.

“We’ll continue to campaign for a pay mechanism that recognises the unique role of police officers, the restrictions placed on their private and professional lives, and the risks and dangers they face in their work.”

Other announcements include:

The on-call allowance will be increased from £20 to £25
The dog handlers’ allowance should be uprated by 4.75 per cent and the additional rate for officers with more than one dog be raised from 25 per cent to 50 per cent of the rate for the first dog
The PRRB recommended that the chief officer of police in each force should be given the discretion to set the starting salary for new constables at either pay point 1 or pay point 2 on the constables’ pay scale. This recommendation has been accepted, but implementation will be subject to detailed proposals from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) on the circumstances in which this discretion should be used, along with transition arrangements for those constables on pay point 1, to inform amendments to the Police Regulations 2003
The annual leave entitlements for officers in the federated ranks and recommended the time it takes to reach the maximum entitlement of 30 days should be reduced from 20 to 10 years, with effect from 1 April 2025 and phased in over three years. This recommendation was accepted, subject to the submission of a satisfactory Equality Impact Assessment by the NPCC to the Home Office
The annual leave entitlement for new entrants will be increased from 22 to 25 days, with implementation taking effect on 1 April 2025
The Home Office will provide £175 million in additional funding in 2024-25 to forces to help with the cost of the pay increase.