Federation calls for 17 per cent pay rise for officers

9 March 2023

West Mercia Police Federation secretary Pete Nightingale spoke of his anger at the treatment of rank and file officers as new research reveals they’ve had a 17 per cent pay cut since the turn of the century.

Pete called for a substantial pay increase for officers to counter the “massive decline” in officers’ pay since 2000.

He said serving officers deserved to be treated with “respect” and rewarded for their unique role in society.

And he added that the best new recruits would be put off from joining the service.

His comments came as new figures from Social Market Foundation (SMF), a non-partisan 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, policing is an outlier among emergency services workers, public sector workers and all workers.

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.

“This report makes for horrible reading,” Pete said. “It makes me so angry that our members are being treated with such contempt by the Government and have experienced such a massive decline in their pay since the turn of the millennium.

“Where has the money gone, because it’s certainly not been invested in the police service or wider society?

“We rely on our brave police officers to serve and protect us but with such huge cuts to their pay it’s no wonder they’re leaving or contemplating leaving – and it makes it even harder to recruit the best candidates as well.

“The Government can change it all in a stroke and treat officers with the respect they deserve with a pay increase that reflects their unique role.

“Which is why, as a Federation, we’re calling for a 17 per cent rise for officers to bring them back to the levels of 23 years ago. It’s the least they deserve,” he added.

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.”