Independent review
Independent Review of Police Officer and Staff Remuneration and Conditions: Part 1 Report
Government response
The government responded to the review on 30 March 2011.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.
The Home Office reports that, after the police officer negotiating machinery, the Home Secretary decided to accept the Police Arbitration Tribunal's recommendations on Part 1, and that the majority of these have now been implemented.
- The changes affected a number of payments and conditions, including a 2 year freeze on pay increments (with the youngest officers exempt), abolition of Special Priority Payments and the introduction of an unsociable hours allowance.
- Time and a third was retained for casual overtime, and a new £50 overnight allowance was introduced for officers held in reserve away from home.
- The Home Office says Part 1 savings, once fully implemented, will be around £150 million per annum initially, before this reduces once pay progression resumes.
- A list of the changes has been published in Home Office circular 010/2012.
About this review
Summary written by this siteFirst part of an independent review of police officer and staff pay and conditions, commissioned by the Home Secretary. Published March 2011 with 62 recommendations on allowances, overtime and unsocial hours payments.
Recommendations 62
Recommendation 1
The Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Policing Board should review the Northern Ireland transitional allowance with a view to increasing the rate by 12.5% to £2,994 for September 2010/11.
Recommendation 2
Police constables, sergeants, inspectors and chief inspectors should receive an additional 10% of their basic pay, on an hourly basis, for hours worked between 8:00pm and 6:00am (non-pensionable).
Recommendation 3
Police staff should not receive additional shift premium (time and a half or double time) for weekend day working if it is part of their normal contracted hours. The rate for routinely working a public holiday should be reduced to double time only. This should be agreed in the Police Staff Council and incorporated into individual contracts of employment using the established mechanisms for doing so. In the case of police forces outside the PSC arrangements, these changes should be agreed in the usual manner with the relevant unions.
Recommendation 4
The Office of National Statistics should consider disaggregating police staff in their Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings in the future, so that their pay can be more easily compared and understood.
Recommendation 5
Determination Annex E, made under Regulation 22 of the Police Regulations 2003, should be amended to require the chief officer to consult, rather than agree, with the local joint branch board and individual officers in connection with the bringing into operation of a variable shift arrangement. That consultation should take place over a period of at least 30 days. Before making his decision, the chief officer should be required to consult the affected officers and take full account of their individual circumstances, including the likely effects of the new arrangement on their personal circumstances. New shift arrangements should not be brought into effect earlier than 30 days after the communication of the decision of the chief officer.
Recommendation 6
Determination Annex G, made under Regulation 25 of the Police Regulations 2003, should be amended to replace time and a third premium pay for casual overtime with plain time. The minimum hours for being recalled between duty should be abolished and instead paid at plain time for the hours worked, with travelling time.
Recommendation 7
Determination Annex H, made under Regulation 26 of the Police Regulations 2003, should be amended to remove double time premium pay and the notice period of five days for working on a rostered rest day. Time and a half premium pay should be payable for working on a rostered rest day with fewer than 15 days’ notice.
Recommendation 8
Determination Annex H, made under Regulation 26 of the Police Regulations 2003, should be amended to allow the payment of overtime at double time for 25 December and seven other days chosen for the next financial year by the officer before 31 January. Cancellation with fewer than 15 days’ notice should require the authority of an Assistant Chief Constable.
Recommendation 9
The Police Staff Council’s handbook, Section 1, paragraph 6.1.2 should be amended to provide for the payment of additional hours of Sunday working at the rate of time and a half. This should be agreed in the Police Staff Council and incorporated into contracts of employment using the established mechanisms for doing so. In the case of police forces outside the PSC arrangements, these changes should be agreed in the usual manner with the relevant unions.
Recommendation 10
For working public holidays, police staff should receive double time for working on 25 December and on seven other days chosen for the next financial year by the employee in question before 31 January. Cancellation with fewer than 15 days’ notice should require the authority of an Assistant Chief Constable. This should be agreed in the Police Staff Council and incorporated into contracts of employment using the established mechanisms for doing so. In the case of police forces outside the PSC arrangements, these changes should be agreed in the usual manner with the relevant unions.
Recommendation 11
Police officers on mutual aid service should be paid for the hours they are required to work each day, plus travelling time to and from the place of duty. Where those hours coincide with the unsocial hours period, or the duty has been required at short notice and they are eligible for the new overtime rates, the officer should be paid at the applicable premium rates.
Recommendation 12
The definition of ‘proper accommodation’ should be revised to describe a single occupancy room with use of en suite bathroom facilities. Where such accommodation is not provided, the officer should receive a payment of £30 per night. The current definition of ‘higher standard accommodation’ should be removed and not replaced.
Recommendation 13
Officers held in reserve on a day and who have not been paid for any mutual aid tour of duty that day, should receive the on-call allowance of £15 for that day.
Recommendation 14
The Police Advisory Board should establish and publish improved guidance as to the types of outside jobs and business interests which are likely to lead to the rejection of applications in this respect. This should be done after consultation with potentially affected parties or their representatives.
Recommendation 15
Regulation 7(5) of the Police Regulations 2003 should be amended to remove the Secretary of State from the appeals process.
Recommendation 16
A medal should be awarded for five years’ service as a special constable.
Recommendation 17
Special constables should be eligible for police team recognition awards alongside regular police officers and police staff.
Recommendation 18
Special constables should be eligible for all new police medals.
Recommendation 19
The Special Constables (Amendment) Regulations 2002 should continue to be used in connection with the provision of financial rewards for special constables, where police forces consider that they will be effective and represent value for money, but the role of the Home Secretary in approving those schemes should be removed.
Recommendation 20
Police officers and all members of police staff below the top of their pay scale should be suspended at that increment for a two-year period commencing September 2011.
Recommendation 21
The current systems of performance-related pay should be suspended until September 2013.
Recommendation 22
Forces reviewing their performance and development systems and training for managers should do so in the knowledge that they may be used in determining pay within the next two to three years.
Recommendation 23
There should be no changes to the present basic pay arrangements for Chief Constables and Deputy Chief Constables.
Recommendation 24
Assistant Chief Constables should move from their current pay scales onto a single rate for the job based on the weight of what they do, in the same way as their Chief Constable and Deputy Chief Constable colleagues. Part 2 of this review will set out in more detail how such a scheme should be implemented.
Recommendation 25
The chief officer bonus scheme should be suspended for a two-year period commencing September 2011.
Recommendation 26
The post-related allowance for chief superintendents should be retained at its present level for the short-term, to reflect the different weights of jobs at the same rank.
Recommendation 27
The bonus scheme for superintendents and chief superintendents should be suspended for a two-year period commencing September 2011.
Recommendation 28
The higher basic pay for London inspectors and chief inspectors should be retained in the short term.
Recommendation 29
Competence Related Threshold Payments should be abolished from 31 August 2011 and all outstanding CRTP payments up to that date should be paid on a pro-rated basis.
Recommendation 30
Chief officers should continue to be able to make ex gratia payments of £50 to £500 to any officer to recognise a piece of work which is outstandingly demanding, unpleasant or important.
Recommendation 31
Chief officers should recognise whole teams, both officers and staff, with a team recognition award payment of £50 to £100 each for outstandingly demanding, unpleasant or important work, or outstanding work for the public.
Recommendation 32
ACPO and the Police Federation of England and Wales, along with other interested parties, should convene a working group to establish a series of new national policing awards.
Recommendation 33
Special Priority Payments should be abolished from 31 August 2011 and all outstanding SPPs up to that date should be paid on a pro-rated basis.
Recommendation 34
An interim Expertise and Professional Accreditation Allowance of £1,200 per annum should be introduced from September 2011 for officers meeting the skills or length of service criteria in the four stated priority functions. It should be paid monthly and pro-rated where an officer works part-time. It should be removed when an officer leaves the qualifying role.
Recommendation 35
The Expertise and Professional Accreditation Allowance should be expanded or replaced when a more sophisticated system of job banding or professional accreditation is established and has been introduced.
Recommendation 36
Arrangements for police forces to recognise the skills of police staff should remain unchanged in the short term.
Recommendation 37
Police Authorities should be required to pay all reasonable costs arising from the sale and purchase of a chief officer’s house, and should pay all tax liabilities arising from any relocation packages, so that, for the chief officer concerned, there is no personal financial disadvantage.
Recommendation 38
Police Authorities should publish details of all benefits for chief officers and their values in their annual reports, itemised by officer.
Recommendation 39
Chief officers should provide receipts for all expenses, and information as to expenses above £50 paid to chief officers should be published quarterly on the Police Authority’s website.
Recommendation 40
The section on officer accommodation in the ‘Guide to conditions of service for police officers seconded to central services’ should be revised. The presumption should be that officers are accommodated in property owned by the relevant organisation or
Recommendation 41
Receiving organisations should list where they have agreed exceptional accommodation charges with officers in their annual report on an anonymised basis.
Recommendation 42
Regional allowances should remain unchanged in the short term.
Recommendation 43
The replacement allowance for housing should remain. However, the amount an officer receives should not increase from 31 August 2011 with changes in personal circumstances, such as promotion. The existing framework, by which the amount an officer receives reduces when he lives with another officer also receiving the allowance, should remain.
Recommendation 44
A national on-call allowance for the Federated ranks should be introduced from September 2011. The amount of the allowance should be £15 for each occasion of on-call after the officer in question has undertaken 12 on-call sessions in the year beginning on 1 September. An on-call occasion should be defined as the requirement to be on-call within any 24-hour period related to the start-of-the-police-day.
Recommendation 45
The national on-call allowance should be reviewed by the Police Negotiating Board three years after its introduction in the context of better management data.
Recommendation 46
The link between the Motor Vehicle Allowance for police officers and that for local authorities should be re-established from September 2011.
Recommendation 47
First-class travel expenses for the ranks of superintendent and above should be published quarterly on the force’s website.
Recommendation 48
Officers’ maternity entitlement should increase from 13 weeks at full pay to 18 weeks at full pay, with officers having the option, with the agreement of their chief officer, to spread the final five weeks of maternity pay over 10 weeks at reduced rate.
Recommendation 49
Staff standby allowance should be reduced to £15 from September 2011.
Recommendation 50
First-class travel expenses for police staff members should be published quarterly on the force’s website.
Recommendation 51
Regulation 13 of the Police Regulations 2003, which allows for the dismissal of officers, should be retained for probationary officers.
Recommendation 52
All police forces should take steps to learn from those police forces which have attained best practice in the area of the handling of poor performance and discipline, including in the training of supervisors who may have to use UPP procedures.
Recommendation 53
Police forces should collaborate to identify a cadre of Assistant Chief Constables who specialise in unsatisfactory performance and attendance procedures and hear cases across police force boundaries.
Recommendation 54
The Police (Performance) Regulations 2008 should be amended to provide that if a police officer has had two or more adverse determinations made against him, on substantive (rather than procedural) grounds, in concluded UPP proceedings within the past five years, subsequent UPP proceedings should begin at Stage 3.
Recommendation 55
The Police Pension Regulations should be amended to allow chief officers to make a choice in relation to the time at which their pension benefits crystallise.
Recommendation 56
The existing regime concerning the severance terms which may be provided to Chief Constables and Deputy Chief Constables should be retained in the short-term.
Recommendation 57
The criteria for the use of the powers in Regulation A19 should be amended, with service-critical skills and performance being explicit considerations.
Recommendation 58
As quickly as possible, police forces should be provided with the ability to offer voluntary exit terms to police officers, substantially on the terms contained in the Civil Service Compensation Scheme 2010.
Recommendation 59
Regulation 5(4) of the Police Regulations 2003 should be amended so that an officer giving written notice to return from part-time to full-time working, must be appointed by the Police Authority within two months if the force has a suitable vacancy, and within four months of the notice being received.
Recommendation 60
The current system of severance for police staff, with its local flexibility, is appropriate and should remain.
Recommendation 61
Forces and their occupational health departments should continue to develop and improve schemes to monitor the use of long-term sickness, recuperative duty and restricted duty, to improve the management of those on restricted duties and work with officers to bring them back to full duties as quickly as possible.
Recommendation 62
Current sickness policies should remain unchanged in the short term.
All text above is the review's.
No recommendations have this response.