Circular 001/2013: police officer remuneration and conditions
Circular 1/2013: Home Secretary’s decision on the findings of the PAT and the PABEW of 24 July 2012 in relation to the Part 2 report of the Winsor Review.
Details
Home Secretary’s decision on the findings of the Police Arbitration Tribunal and the Police Advisory Board for England and Wales of 24 July 2012 in relation to the Part 2 report of the Winsor Review
- Broad subject: Police service
- Sub category: Police pay and conditions
- Issue date: 15 January 2013
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Implementation date: 15 January 2013
- From: crime and policing group, policing directorate, police productivity unit
- For more info contact: Neil Pattinson on 020 7035 1846 or email [email protected]
- Addressed to: chief officers of England and Wales, police and crime commissioners
Police Arbitration Tribunal
Introduction
This circular publishes the Home Secretary’s decision on the findings of the Police Arbitration Tribunal (PAT) of 6 December 2012 and the advice of the Police Advisory Board for England and Wales (PABEW) of 24 July 2012 in relation to the Part 2 Report of the Independent Review of Police Officer and Staff Remuneration and Conditions, led by Tom Winsor.
In March 2012, the Home Secretary directed the Police Negotiating Board to consider and reach agreement on 17 recommendations in the Winsor Part 2 Report in respect of police officer pay and conditions. The Police Negotiating Board failed to reach agreement on a number of important matters and these were referred to the Police Arbitration Tribunal in July 2012. The PAT provided its findings on 06 December 2012.
See further information on the PAT recommendation.
On 15 January 2012, the Home Secretary announced in a written ministerial statement that, following careful consideration, she accepted the PAT’s recommendation.
The Home Secretary is therefore minded to introduce the following changes to police officer remuneration and conditions:
Recommendation 54 - Payscale for new entrant constables (PAT accepted the Official Side’s proposed payscale)
A new payscale will be introduced for constables from April 2013 with a lower starting salary of between £19,000 and £22,000 depending on skills, experience and local recruitment needs. The new pay scale will be shorter than the existing one, so that officers will be able to reach the top point of £36,519 in seven years rather than ten.
Pay Point Official Side
0 £19,000
1 £22,000
2 £23,000
3 £24,000
4 £25,000
5 £27,000
6 £31,032
7 £36,519
Note: new constables will start on a salary of between £19,000 and £22,000 depending on skills, experience and local recruitment needs.
Recommendation 74 - Regional Allowances (as modified by PAT)
Chief Constables and the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police are to be given discretion to vary levels of regional allowance payment up to the maximum based on local retention needs. This will not be linked to performance.
Recommendation 83 - Competency Related Threshold Payments (as modified by the PAT)
Competency Related Threshold Payments are to be phased out over three years from April 2013 - April 2016.
Recommendation 112 - On-call allowance (as modified by the PAT)
An on-call allowance of £15 for each daily occasion will be introduced for federated ranks officers. There will be no qualifying number of sessions before payments are made.
Implementation
The process to amend the relevant sections of the Police Regulations 2003 and determinations to take forward these recommendations will begin immediately, including making any necessary consequential and ancillary changes.This will include consultation with the Police Negotiating Board.
Recommendations deferred or rejected by the PAT
Recommendations 46, 47 and 48 - Compulsory Severance (deferred by PAT)
Tom Winsor recommended that a system of compulsory severance for police officers with less than full pensionable service should be introduced with financial compensation on the same terms as the Civil Service Compensation Scheme. Officers subject to compulsory severance should have access to employment tribunals if they feel that their severance was unfair.
The Home Secretary has accepted the PAT’s recommendation to give the Staff and Official Sides of the PNB until 24 July 2013 to conclude negotiations on Tom Winsor’s recommendations relating to compulsory severance.
Recommendation 94 - Expertise and Professional Accreditation Allowance (rejected by the PAT)
The Expertise and Professional Accreditation Allowance will not be implemented.
Police Advisory Board for England and Wales
In March 2012, the Home Secretary also directed the Police Advisory Board for England and Wales (PABEW) to consider and reach agreement on non-pay related Winsor Part 2 recommendations.
The PABEW provided advice to the Home Secretary on these on 24 July 2012. The Home Secretary has considered this and has accepted the board’s advice in full.
A summary of the PABEW’s advice is included below:
Recommendation 3:
The board agreed that a Level 3 achievement is appropriate to the demands of modern policing, and should be introduced as a qualification for new entrants.
Recommendation 5:
The board rejected the recommendation to raise the SEARCH pass mark to 70%.
Recommendations 10, 11 and 12:
The recommendations on accelerated promotion will be considered by the board once the substance of these schemes has been considered by the College of Policing.
Recommendation 16:
The board agreed with the recommendation to enable police officers to be seconded to organisations outside policing for a period up to five years.
Recommendation 17 and 18:
The board agreed with the recommendations on former non-probationary officers returning at the rank they previously held.
Recommendation 21:
The recommendation on the probation period for direct entry at higher ranks will be considered by the board once the substance of the direct entry schemes have been considered by the College of Policing.
Recommendations 23 and 26:
The board considered the direct entry of overseas candidates at Chief Constable rank a matter for Parliament, and that it has offered comments on implementation, should the principle be approved by Parliament.
Recommendation 33:
The board supported the introduction of an annual fitness test requiring the attainment of level 5:4 on the shuttle run, and that unsatisfactory performance procedures are appropriate to deal with a failure to meet the standard, subject to support from a force’s occupational health services to remedy the failure.
Recommendations 34 - 36:
The board will continue to look at the recommendations for the July 2013 deadline, but with a modified timeline leading up to the proposed introduction of a more rigorous annual fitness test, akin to the PSNI test, in 2018. This timeline would allow the board to take account of experience from the introduction of annual fitness tests and would allow the PSNI test to be assessed against the circumstances of policing in England and Wales.
Recommendation 37:
The board rejected the recommendation on specialist fitness tests for police officers in specialist roles (to be introduced in 2018), but the standards for specialist fitness testing introduced in 2012 should be reviewed after two years, and amended if necessary.