Chair Raffaele Cioffi meets with MP James MacCleary

20 February 2025

Sussex Police Federation Chair Raffaele Cioffi has met Lewes MP James MacCleary to discuss a range of issues facing police officers in the area.

Raffaele spoke to the Liberal Democrat MP about police pay and the current issues facing the service with the Police Remuneration Review Body. He emphasised the need for police officers to be paid fairly for the job they do, especially given that they had the lowest pay rise in the comparable public sector last year.

On pay, Raffaele explained the Federation’s position on collective bargaining with binding arbitration on pay, which Federated members overwhelmingly backed in a poll last year.

He also touched on the devastating effect that lengthy conduct investigations can have on police officers – which often has a huge and serious impact on their mental health.

Raffaele also explained the problems with new vetting rules that circumvent the current Police Regulations, and why the Federation is against these.

He said: “This was a positive meeting with James MacCleary MP and I will be writing to him to reinforce these topics further.

“As a Federation, it is vitally important that we have a regular dialogue with our local politicians, so they can feed back the concerns of our members in Parliament.”