Received: 10 September 2026

QUESTION 1:
Please can the expenses of the CEO and all roles that directly report to him be provided?

QUESTION 2:
Please provide copies of all the unanswered emails to the Police Federation pension mailbox.

QUESTION 3:
Please provide all evidence that led to the Federation to capitulate in the pension trap challenge.
And evidence that supports “not pushing too hard”.

Responded: 11 September 2026

RESPONSE 1:

The expenses for the National Board and CEO can be found up until Q1 2024 here: https://polfed.org/resources/reports/. Further information on the CEO’s expenses can be found on PolFed.org in the resources section on our Freedom of Information Disclosure Log, FOI 00455. 

These will be updated to the current date shortly. However, we don’t have a set date for this at the present time.   

Accordingly, the PFEW relies on Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act – "Information intended for future publication" – to exempt this information from disclosure at this time.   

In relation to our reliance on Section 22, the PFEW recognises that there is a general public interest in transparency in relation to finances and publishing detailed information in relation to certain items of expenditure. More specifically, in publishing the expenses of the National Board and the CEO. This recognition is evidenced by our publication of this information covering prior periods.  

However, we consider that this public interest is best served by the publication of accurate, complete, and up to date information published centrally and periodically via the PFEW website, rather than in response to ad hoc Freedom of Information requests, prior to the necessary collation and presentation of information having taken place.  

Accordingly, we consider that, in all the circumstances, the public interest in maintaining the Section 22 exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information at this time. 

RESPONSE 2:

To the best of our knowledge, all emails within the pensions’ mailboxes are responded to.

In the event that they were not, given the personal nature of the subject matter, the PFEW considers that the majority of emails in the pensions mailbox would contain personal data and would therefore be exempt information under section 40(2)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).  

The PFEW is of the view that disclosing the information pertinent to this part of the request would be in breach of the data protection principles set out under Article 5 of the UKGDPR.  The PFEW has a legal requirement to process data lawfully, fairly and transparently, to collect data for explicit and legitimate purposes and to ensure that data is not further processed in a manner that is incompatible with the initial purposes (Article 5(1)(a) and (b) of the UKGDPR). 

Furthermore, the PFEW does not consider there to be any legal basis to process the data under Article 6 of the UKGDPR for the purposes of answering this FOI request. The individuals who have contacted this mailbox have done so of their own freewill for the purposes it was set up for and for the reasons contained within any emails they may have sent to us.  We do not consider that we have a legitimate interest in providing the requestor with copies of emails sent by individuals, nor are we able to identify any legitimate interest on the part of the requestor in receiving copies of these emails which would outweigh the rights and interests of the senders. We also do not have the senders' consent (or any other legal basis) to process their data for any purposes outside of that.  Consequently, the PFEW is applying section 40(2)(a) and (3A)(a) to this question.

RESPONSE 3:

The decision taken by the PFEW not to support any legal action in relation to the Pension Trap was taken not because of factual evidence but because of legal advice obtained by the PFEW. The PFEW therefore does not hold any "evidence". However, members are able to ask their Branch Boards to see the advice.  

For further information, please see: https://polfed.org/pensions/pension-trap/