4.75% pay uplift welcomed – but much more still to do

South Wales Police Federation has welcomed the announcement of a 4.75 per cent pay uplift for all ranks while noting that pay is still short of where it should be.
 
The new Government announced on Monday that it will implement the pay review body’s recommendations in full, however, the Federation has long argued that police pay has fallen behind by 17 per cent in real terms since 2010.
 
Branch chair Phil Walker said: “This latest uplift and the rise last year are to be welcomed, I know it will make a difference to the pay packets of our members, many of whom are still struggling to pay their monthly bills and provide for their families.
 
“I would urge the Government to go further still and repair the damage that has been done by years of below-inflation rises since 2010. It is the right thing to do to ensure my colleagues receive a fair day’s pay for their dedicated public service.”
 
Phil said the ‘elephant in the room’ is the question of industrial rights, particularly as junior doctors are being offered a 22 per cent rise, having exercised their right to strike which police officers are denied by law.

Increase

The Police Remuneration Review Body’s (PRRB) recommended increase was below that offered to other professions and ignored calls from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) for officers to receive a 6 per cent increase.
 
This prompted Calum Macleod, national secretary of the Police Federation, to respond: “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 mean 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.”
 
The Federation remains removed from the pay review body mechanism, as it does not allow for negotiation, only the imposition of a fixed pay award.
 
In a recent poll, 98 per cent of officers supported the Federation’s call for a return to collective bargaining with binding arbitration. It is also important that this pay award is funded by new money so that police chiefs aren’t forced to fund it through cuts to other essential services.
 

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 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.

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