National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Pay and Conditions,
Chief Constable Francis Habgood said:
“Police officers work hard to protect the public and make an
important contribution to our society. Chief constables support
the decision to reward officers above the 1 per cent limit; it is
deserved and recognises the additional costs of living and
inflation.
“For the first time, police officers will see their pay boosted
by a non-consolidated pay award. We will work with forces
to explain what this means for officers. The opportunity to
target bonus payments more flexibly will help us to recruit and
retain key hard-to-fill roles like detectives, firearms officers
and custody officers.
“We are working with the College of Policing and staff
associations to design a new reward framework that will link pay
to competence, skills and contribution so that officers and staff
are rewarded fairly for the work that they do. All officers
and staff will have access to professional development so they
have the opportunity to continuously improve and build new skills
over the course of their careers.
“On average, police officer pay makes up over 50 per cent of
total force budgets, which have had real terms cuts of 18 per
cent since 2010. Police chiefs have budgeted in line with
the public sector pay cap until 2020 so this change puts
financial pressure on already stretched budgets.
“Chiefs and police and crime commissioners are committed to
spending the money we have with absolute efficiency at both local
and national level. However, without better real terms
funding protection from government, an award above one per cent
will inevitably impact on our ability to deliver policing
services and maintain staffing levels.”
On the point of police reserves, CC Habgood said:
“Forces have reduced their reserves by around 30 per cent since
2015 and reserves are projected to fall by another 30 per cent in
by 2019. Reserves are needed to respond to unexpected
costs, such as the uplift in policing to respond to the raised
terror threat level in May, and fund change programmes to improve
our services.”
