4.75% pay uplift ‘not a moment too soon’ says Federation

30 July 2024

The announcement of a 4.75 per cent pay uplift for all ranks is 'not a moment too soon' according to West Mercia Police Federation.

Branch secretary Pete Nightingale has welcomed the pay rise, which will take effect from September.

However, he says more needs to be done to achieve the pay levels that officers deserve, with police pay having fallen behind by 17 per cent in real terms since 2010.

Pete continued: “The news this week will be a relief for many of my colleagues who are struggling to pay their monthly bills and put food on the table – however we know that police pay is still way below where it should be.

Pay and Morale

“The feelings of our officers were shown very clearly in the Federation's recent Pay and Morale survey, which found that 81 per cent of West Mercia officers surveyed are unhappy with their pay and allowances and 84 per cent feel worse off today than five years ago.

“So, we will continue to make the case to the new Government that, whilst this uplift is a good start, there is more to do, including reforming the pay review process.”

The national Federation removed itself from the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) as it does not allow for negotiation, only the imposition of a fixed pay award. And in a recent poll, almost 98 per cent of officers supported the Federation’s call for a return to collective bargaining with binding arbitration.

With junior doctors having been offered a 20 per cent rise, following a prolonged period of strikes, this is likely to build pressure on the Labour Government to address the unfairness of police officers who are denied the right to strike by law.

Calum Macleod, National Secretary of the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW), responded: “While we don’t believe that one group of public sector workers should be set against another, the pay review body recommendation shows that they do not understand policing and its needs.

“Poor pay and morale means police officers aren’t staying in the force and we are losing valuable experience from the service. The Federation is right to sit outside a process which does not recognise the role that police officers perform in society and the risks they take.”

Other announcements include:

The on-call allowance will be increased from £20 to £25
The dog handlers’ allowance should be uprated by 4.75 per cent and the additional rate for officers with more than one dog be raised from 25 per cent to 50 per cent of the rate for the first dog
The PRRB recommended that the chief officer of police in each force should be given the discretion to set the starting salary for new constables at either pay point 1 or pay point 2 on the constables’ pay scale. This recommendation has been accepted, but implementation will be subject to detailed proposals from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) on the circumstances in which this discretion should be used, along with transition arrangements for those constables on pay point 1, to inform amendments to the Police Regulations 2003
The annual leave entitlements for officers in the federated ranks and recommended the time it takes to reach the maximum entitlement of 30 days should be reduced from 20 to 10 years, with effect from 1 April 2025 and phased in over three years. This recommendation was accepted, subject to the submission of a satisfactory Equality Impact Assessment by the NPCC to the Home Office
The annual leave entitlement for new entrants will be increased from 22 to 25 days, with implementation taking effect on 1 April 2025
The Home Office will provide £175 million in additional funding in 2024-25 to forces to help with the cost of the pay increase.