Met chief ‘right’ to call for 10 per cent police pay uplift

23 February 2023

West Mercia Police Federation chair Pete Nightingale has given his backing to comments by the head of the Metropolitan Police who says officers must be given a pay award that keeps pace with inflation which is currently running at just above 10 per cent.

Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Commissioner, fired a warning to the Government this week that he would ‘not be able to meet recruitment targets, or hold on to existing officers’, unless police pay was increased to match cost of living pressures.

Pete commented: “Sir Mark Rowley is quite right to point out that pay for police officers has eroded significantly in the last decade - by almost 29 per cent for those on the lowest pay scales - and until this is addressed, we will struggle to recruit and retain our workforce. This would be an issue at any time, but with inflation soaring and showing no signs of easing yet, it just puts rocket fuel under the problem.

“That’s why it is disappointing to read in the media that the Government is talking about a pay offer of 3.5 per cent. This will fall way short of what is needed.”

Last year, officers received an average five per cent increase - still well below inflation - and in the Home Office’s submission to the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) this year, it notes that funding provided through the 2023/24 police funding settlement is higher than agreed at Spending Review 2021, which included a provisional assumption of a two per cent pay increase.

The submission goes on to say that its assessment is “there is scope for forces to budget up to a 3.5 per cent pay award” so long as efficiencies are achieved.

The Police Federation of England and Wales no longer makes a submission to the PRRB, having withdrawn and called for the process to be replaced with a “truly independent” body.

In his comments, Sir Mark Rowley said he was being “ruthless” in removing rogue officers, but he also needed “to recruit, develop, motivate and retain the talent of tens of thousands of fantastic men and women,” adding, “This is becoming increasingly hard — perhaps not surprising when a cost of living crisis lands on top of a 17 per cent real-terms decrease in pay over the past 10 years for frontline officers.”