8 March 2011
A range of police bonuses and allowances should be suspended according to a review of police pay.
The first part of former rail regulator Tom Winsor’s Independent review of police officer and staff remuneration was published today. It found that police officers were comparatively well paid, earning 10%–15% more than some other emergency workers. In some parts of the UK, such as Wales and the Northeast, police pay was found to be 60% higher than average local earnings.
Winsor made a series of short-term recommendations, which, if implemented, would produce net savings of £485m over three years.
These include suspending all chief officer and superintendent bonuses and freezing progression up the pay scale for two years for all officers and staff. He also recommended abolishing the £1,212 competence-related threshold payment, designed to reward officers who achieve high professional standards, and special priority payments, worth up to £5,000. Special priority payments are given to officers working in frontline roles who take on a particularly high level of responsibility or work in especially demanding environments.
The report does recommend that officers who work unsocial hours receive an extra 10% of their basic pay on an hourly rate and that a new expertise and professional accreditation allowance of £1,200 be introduced for most detectives, firearms, and neighbourhood policing officers.
Winsor did not recommend compulsory redundancies, which would require a change in the law. Unlike other public sector workers, police officers are protected from compulsory redundancy but Winsor found no need to change this in the short term.
He said his recommendations would ‘allow the police to provide a more efficient, economical and effective service to the public while providing officers and staff with a fairer pay deal. People should be paid for what they do and how well they do it and the service needs modern management tools to operate with the greatest efficiency and economy in a time of considerable national financial pressure and restraint.’
But police officer representatives warned that Winsor’s recommendations would have a ‘devastating effect’ on policing.
Paul McKeever, chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: ‘Police officers are likely to suffer a 15%–20% reduction in the value of their pay. Officers and their families are paying the price for the failure of the home secretary to safeguard policing from the 20% cut on the service imposed by the Treasury.’
The Winsor report was published as the Association of Chief Police Officers predicted that 12,000 police officer jobs would be lost. McKeever said job losses on this scale would have a ‘detrimental effect’ on the service the police provides to the public.
Home Secretary Theresa May is to consider Winsor’s recommendations before taking any further action. The Home Office said no changes to police pay would be made without full discussion with the Police Negotiating Board.
Winsor’s final, long-term recommendations will be published in June.
