Policing the Games: Federation pushes for same allowance payments for all officers

5 August 2022

The Federation has worked with the National Police Coordination Centre (NPoCC) to ensure that all officers involved in policing the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham are paid the same allowances.

Officers should all receive £100 for any days when they are off duty but held in reserve so that they can be called back to duty if required.

“Being held in reserve will, of course, cause some inconvenience to officers involved in this operation,” says Jon Nott, who is West Midlands Police Federation’s lead for the Commonwealth Games.

“While officially on leave, they can’t really go very far, have a drink or properly relax as they know they could be called upon to return to work with just a few hours’ notice.

“For this reason, officers held in reserve are paid £100 to compensate them for any inconvenience. With a policing operation of this size, our own Force has relied on officers travelling to the West Midlands as part of mutual aid. This means that we have officers from various forces here and we wanted to ensure that all chief constables are paying their officers the same allowances.

“We have been liaising with NPoCC and have been assured that the chief constables have confirmed this is the case.”

Jon added: “We will be monitoring this situation as officers receive their next salary payments.”

Throughout the Games, Federation representatives from across England and Wales have been on hand to offer support and advice to officers policing what is the largest event to be staged in Birmingham.

West Midlands Police Federation has a welfare van on hand providing hot and cold drinks and snacks as do the Norfolk, Humberside, Hertfordshire, North Wales and Dyfed Powys branches.

“The welfare vans have been really popular with officers,” says Jon, who has been involved in the planning of the policing of the Games since late 2019, “What has been really impressive is that reps have also been filling up rucksacks and going out on foot to ensure that they can get drinks and snacks to officers who are at points that are inaccessible to the vans.

“They really have done as much as they can to ensure officers are looked after.”

Jon has also remarked on the fact that officers seem to be enjoying the deployment.

“All too often when you have officers involved in mutual aid operations, they are there because there are public order concerns. But that has not been the case with this event; it has been a real family-friendly atmosphere,” he explained.

“Officers have also commented that it has been like a return to good old-fashioned policing. During the austerity years, our numbers declined and officers were not getting out on the streets, patrolling and engaging with the public. Then we have had the pandemic and that also impacted on our ability to get involved in our communities.

“Many officers have said how much they have enjoyed being back out on the streets, meeting people, talking to visitors and building relations.”

The Commonwealth Games close on Monday with a scaled down policing operation coming to an end later in the week once the athletes’ villages have closed.