Federation calls for 17 per cent pay rise for officers

9 March 2023

Suffolk Police Federation chair Darren Harris says members feel “betrayed” as new research reveals they’ve had a 17 per cent pay cut since 2000.

Darren says members are sick of the contempt in which they’re held by the Government as the research revealed police officers pay has slumped compared to other workers in the public and private sectors.

Now he’s joined the calls for a minimum 17 per cent pay rise for officers to bring them back to where they were at the start of the century.

His comments come as new figures from the Social Market Foundation (SMF) think tank revealed that pay for UK police officers declined by 17 per cent in real terms between 2000 and 2022.

According to the report, police wages have failed to keep pace with other emergency services workers, public sector workers, and all workers in general.

The report said that all these groups saw their pay rise in real terms over this period by a total of 1 per cent, 14 per cent, and five per cent respectively. The research showed MPs’ salaries saw a four per cent rise in total over the period.

Darren said: “This report makes for stark reading and our members will feel betrayed that their pay has, in effect, been slashed by 17 per cent since 2000.

“Many of our hard-working officers are now struggling to make ends meet as the cost of living crisis continues to bite, and members are of sick of the contempt they’re held in by this Government.

“Other sectors are using their lawful right to strike and industrial action to improve their pay and conditions, but those avenues aren’t open to our members. Instead, we’re expected to police picket lines, an irony I’m sure isn’t lost on them.

“Enough is enough. It’s disgraceful how police officers are treated and that has to change – starting with a pay award that not only reflects inflation and the cost of living but the decades of decline and the unique role we play.”

The SMF report said officers’ decline in pay was likely to be linked to the restrictions on police officers’ right to strike compared to all other workers, including other emergency service personnel.

It also found that police constable starting salaries have lagged behind earnings as a whole across the economy by a considerable amount.

SMF has calculated that if these real-terms trends continued over the next five years, police pay would see a further real-terms decline of four per cent by 2027 compared to private and public sector worker pay, which is expected to rise over the same period.

A key factor in police pay discussions is the P-factor which SMF has suggested should be offered in addition to its findings.

The P-factor is an element of police pay that reflects the unique responsibilities police officers experience relative to other comparable roles.

This includes their risk of exposure to physical and psychological harm, alongside the restrictions that are placed upon their private lives.

The P-factor payment does not feature in SMF’s report, highlighting that the actual figure of degradation of police pay is even greater.

National Federation chair Steve Hartshorn labelled the research a “wake-up call for policy-makers”.

He said: “Police officers put their lives on the line every day to serve and protect their communities.

“That’s why today our National Council has taken the decision to call for a minimum 17 per cent increase in pay for our officers.

“The Government can no longer sit by and ignore our members’ basic needs and must recognise the impact of this independent research.

“In the context of ongoing inflation, indications of a police retention crisis, and reports of officers being forced to turn to food banks, the issue of police pay must be addressed now after more than a decade of being ignored.

“Police officers deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, and that begins with better pay.

“Pay that not only reflects the cost-of-living crisis that many of us face but puts right the 17 per cent decline since 2000 and compensates officers for the dangers they’re exposed to as part of the job.

“They must be compensated fairly for doing a job that’s so important and unique that they do not have access to industrial rights.”