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The Humberside Police Federation Annual Charity Dinner held on the 29th October 2011 at the Forest Pines Hotel, Broughton raised £3,050 pounds for its annual chosen charity Hull & East Riding (HER) Breast Friends. The money will be used to assist in purchasing “patient packs” that are distributed with the Breast Surgery Unit at the Castle Hill Hospital and other items to enable the charity to carry on supporting those victims both male and female who suffer from breast cancer.
Kev Rack, Secretary of the Police Federation in Humberside said, "Over one hundred and sixty people attended the event and it was a superb evening. The Humberside Police Federation were proud to be able to support (HER) Breast Friends a charity nominated by one of our own officers, it is an extremely worthwhile cause. We would like to thank all those that supported the evening including our Federation members and support staff colleagues, of which there were more attended than any previous year, Federation colleagues from around the country, our member services who contribute with magnificent prizes towards the raffle and the guests from the charity itself.
From left to right in the picture Steve Garmston (Chair of the Police Federation), PC Pam Trays (NCC) who nominated the Charity, Jan Jones (Co-founder of the Charity), Kev Rack (JBB Secretary)
We are currently looking for a relevant Charity for 2012 should anyone have any suggestions please contact Kev Rack the JBB Secretary with details. The event will be held on Saturday 10th November 2012 at the Forest Pines Hotel, Broughton Nr Scunthorpe.
The Home Secretary this morning, has announced ratification the PAT decision at the Police Reform event in London. Please find her official statement attached for your information.
This is the first indication from public sources that the result of the PAT on the Winsor 1 report will be out next week. As soon as we have got it and digested it then it will be released to you in the usual media outlets including this site, twitter and Facebook.
Sunday 6th May will see a half marathon coming to North Lincolnshire, with a 9 am start in the event we have a really hot day.
Full details can be found on the event web site www.northlincshalf.com
This promises to be a great event in Olympic Year
Click the link to read the statement forllowing the meeting with Mr Winsor on 24th November 2011.
The November edition of the magazine is now online which includes coverage of police station closures, a big thanks to all of you who came back with information for that and we will look to feature more on this issue: http://www.polfed.org/mag_nov_2011.asp
We have also included a look at the Winsor review and what that will mean for the future of the service. News covers issues such as how pervasive targets are in some forces – despite the government mantra otherwise, tributes to PC Goodlad and the new Met commissioner’s support for direct entry.
All the usual columns are included – View from the chair on recent crime stats rising as police numbers reduce, John Apter, chair of Hampshire, sets out the position of police station closures in his force area and how they could impact, inspectors highlight that the rank is central to dealing with increasing demands and Clive Chamberlain presents his take on training to be a police officer. Dogberry should also raise a smile on an overcast afternoon…
Simply register NOW for a Home, Motor or Motorcycle quote and you will be automatically entered into a FREE prize draw to win an Amazon Kindle. (Closing date 31/01/2012).
Response from Ian Rennie, General Secretary - Police Federation of E&W
Article from The Guardian, 1st October 2011
Dear Colleagues
Following the failure to agree between the Official Side and Staff Side at July’s PNB meeting, I can now confirm that a date has been set for the Police Arbitration Tribunal to consider the recommendations from the Winsor Part One Report. The hearing will take place on Tuesday 8 November 2011.
I will keep you informed of any further developments.
Regards
Ian Rennie
General Secretary - Police Federation of E&W
You may have seen features in some of the national media over the weekend and today, attacking the Police Federation and other representative bodies for people working within the public sector, as well as trying to smear individual officers.
The Police Federation has come in for special criticism no doubt for our robust arguments in relation to pay and conditions; pensions etc. and for alerting the public to police cuts and concern over numbers following the riots. This will have angered those with a different agenda, who appear to be resorting to petty slights rather than engaging on the real issues.
Click here for a link to one of the articles which is in today’s Daily Mail.
The cynic in me would say that at the time of adding this to the Internet the Public comments were not available, probably because they came out in support of the Police Service and it did not suit the Mail to have them published.
Our national offices issues a statement earlier today in response to some of the recent stories – don’t expect to see it printed anywhere as we are seldom afforded the courtesy of a right to reply to attacks and certainly anything that is ever published by way of a response is not given the same prominence as the original article.
The press statement from Simon Reed our Vice-Chairman read.
“The Police Federation of England and Wales was set up under statute to ensure the welfare and efficiency of the police service and is regulated by Parliament. We are not a union but a staff association for police officers, and currently we have over 138,000 members from the rank of constable to chief inspector. Lord Edmund Davies recommended that full-time Federation representatives should be introduced following the Independent Royal Commission into Policing in 1978.
“The Police Federation represents members during grievances and welfare issues and acts as the voice of rank-and-file officers. Federation representatives deal with all modern employment issues at a local level and are able to assist forces to deal with grievances and problems before they become legalistic and expensive. Our members also fund two convalescent homes to facilitate the recovery and recuperation of injured officers. Recent newspaper articles failed to report that The Department of Trade and Innovation has estimated that the savings made through our representatives to the economy is between £476m and £1.1b. If the Federation did not exist, these kinds of costs would be borne by the tax payer.
“Police officers are regularly involved in incidents in the course of their duty, which require legal representation, and normally this would be funded by their employer – in our case it would be the Police Authority. If this liability, currently funded through Police Federation subscriptions, was passed over to Police Authorities then it would cost them up to £10m a year.”
Expect more attacks from certain elements of the media as the campaign to reduce dangerous police cuts and ensure that we have enough officers to keep our communities safe continues. Your Police Federation is resolved to fight nationally and locally to ensure fair pay for officers and that police officer numbers are maintained in order to keep our communities’ safe.
Kev Rack
JBB Secretary.
The attached open letter from the Police Federation of England & Wales was published in Sunday newspapers on 21st August 2011.
A letter of support from Steve Gillan, General Secretary of the Prison Officers Assoc. has been sent to Paul McKeever. Please click on the link to view the letter.
Police across Australia are thinking of your members in the Metropolitan Police in London and other cities around the UK. The sheer scale of the mindless rioting and looting makes your task of restoring law and order extremely difficult. The mobile phone culture and messaging between the criminal gangs on the street pose special challenges.
We are sure that your officers on the front line can safeguard communities while staying as safe as possible themselves in these troubling times. It is vital that community leaders, from Prime Minister David Cameron down, support the efforts of police men and women as well as fire and ambulance services, in every way possible. Your members especially need to be congratulated for their efforts, for at the same time that their pay, pensions, working conditions and even their very jobs are under threat, they are putting their personal safety on the line to protect life and property.
If there is anything we could possibly do in support, please don’t hesitate to let us know.
From your friends in Australia.
Mark Burgess
Chief Executive Officer
Police Federation of Australia
http://www.pfa.org.au
On behalf of the New Zealand Police Association and all your international policing colleagues in ICPRA, I want to offer our support and admiration for the way in which you are handling the riots and disorder in your cities.
We are all reminded at times like this that the line between anarchy and the order we need for society to function is a very thin one, and although its a cliche, its represented by the thin blue one that is police.
The professionalism and strength we are witnessing being displayed by your forces reflects well on police not only in your country, but police everywhere tasked with maintaining public order. Our citizens and governments are realizing that the same could happen in our own jurisdictions any time.
Good luck over the coming days and weeks, and know your international colleagues are watching and supporting your efforts.
Greg O'Connor
New Zealand Police AssociationChairman International Council of Police Representatives Association.(ICPRA)
http://www.policeassn.org.nz
Click on the link to view the letter from the Home Secretary outlining the government’s proposals in respect of increases to the Police Pension schemes.
Staff Side will be considering the proposals and responding to the consultation in due course.
Dear colleagues,
You will be aware that over the last four months negotiations have been taking place regarding the Winsor Part One recommendations. Disappointingly, despite the very best efforts of Staff Side to find an acceptable agreement, there was a failure to agree at today’s PNB meeting. What has become clear is that this is not about providing fiscal solutions as the Official Side rejected alternative proposals put forward by the Staff Side that would have minimised the impact of Winsor Part One on police officers. This would appear to be about ideology and on that basis it seems the Official Side never engaged in true negotiation.
Despite attempts to achieve resolution through agreement at conciliation today, the matter has now been referred to the Police Arbitration Tribunal by the independent Chair of PNB. The PAT will be asked to consider nearly 20 separate recommendations and will, therefore, be looking at significantly wider range of issues than is typically case in a reference to arbitration. At this stage the exact timetable for the PAT process has not been finalised. We will keep you updated as soon as we know when the hearing will be scheduled.
Please see below the press release we have issued to the media tonight and also attached the statement read out at the full PNB meeting by Ian Rennie, Staff Side General Secretary of the Staff Side of PNB. They will be also placed on the PFEW website.
Regards
Metin & Raj
Staff Side of Police Negotiating Board
Anger and disappointment as Police Negotiating Board registers failure to agree on police pay proposals
The Staff Side of the Police Negotiating Board (PNB) is bitterly disappointed that today’s PNB meeting has ended with a ‘failure to agree’ after it put forward an alternative proposal of reforms that would have delivered equivalent, or more, financial savings to those proposed in the Winsor Report. The actions of the Official Side has forced Staff Side to conclude that whatever savings Staff Side offers, a deal is not achievable as this appears to be about ideologically driven change and not just saving money.
The Staff Side, representing all UK police officers from constable to chief constable, is absolutely frustrated that there was failure to agree despite four months of intense negotiations on the Winsor Part One recommendations, and a willingness by Staff Side to offer alternative proposals and reforms that deliver savings that could exceed the £387 million desired.
Paul McKeever Chairman of PNB Staff Side and the Police Federation of England and Wales says;
“It is extremely frustrating and disappointing that we have been unable to reach agreement today. Staff Side fully engaged in the negotiations from the outset despite the extremely challenging timescales. We worked hard to find alternative reforms that make similar financial savings within the police service but unfortunately these alternatives were rejected by the Official Side. Today, they have made clear that despite government rhetoric, this is about dogma and not a solution to the fiscal situation the country faces.
"Staff Side made clear from the beginning that we would be unable to agree Winsor’s recommendations as an entire package because of the considerable financial hardship its proposals would cause for police officers. We remain concerned that some of Winsor’s recommendations would seriously inhibit, and in many cases, damage officers’ work/life balance. Also, as identified by Winsor, they impact unfairly on female and black and minority ethnic officers.
“We have repeatedly stated during negotiations, we remain unconvinced by the evidence, analysis or arguments set out in support of many of the Winsor recommendations so we couldn’t possibly sign up to them all.
“We offered proposals which deliver savings that match Winsor’s proposals. These include the suspension of superintendents’ and chief officers’ bonus payments for the coming two years, the suspension of the Special Priority Payment (SPP) budget for three years and a reduction in the rate of casual overtime.
“We now ask that the Home Secretary, Theresa May, keeps the promise she made last year to the police officers of England and Wales to fight our corner and that the government honour the negotiation process and the decision of the independent Police Arbitration Tribunal. Staff Side firmly believe that we made every effort to reach an agreement with the Official Side and we remain committed to fighting for the fairest deal for police officers throughout the UK.
Radio Humberside Interview 21 July 2011 by Steve Garmston, Chairman, Humberside Police Federation.
BBC Radio Humberside Interview With Steve Garmston
The above file is a 5MB sound file stored in WAV format. You can download it by clicking on the above link with your right mouse button. Select the option 'Save Target As', and then choose a location on your computer to store the file. Once downloaded, you should be able to listen to the file in Windows Media Player or other audio program stored on your computer.
Over the last week daily events have seen a small number of journalists, politicians and police officers under intense public scrutiny.
Where any wrong doing is found to have occurred it is right that those individuals concerned are dealt with appropriately.
However seeing and hearing some of the recent commentary by some media and politicians I must object, on behalf of all police officers across England and Wales, to the grossly offensive and incorrect assumption that the police service suffers from wide scale corruption.
If we identify a bad doctor we don't hear widespread condemnation of the entire medical profession.
This must be kept in context and not become an excuse for political point-scoring. The British police service remains the most open, accountable and professional police force in the world and the men and women who work within it are of the utmost integrity and have every reason to be proud.
Paul McKeever
Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales
Open letter to Sir Hugh Orde, President of ACPO
The latest edition of Federation News includes the latest updates on Winsor and Hutton and can be downloaded by clicking on the link.
Dear Colleagues
The first meeting of the PNB Pay & Conditions Working Group took place on 6th April at the Office of Manpower and Economics.
You are aware that last week the Home Secretary informed parliament by written statement that she had decided to send the Winsor recommendations to PNB in their entirety. At the time of the meeting yesterday the letter of direction from the Home Secretary to PNB was still awaited, however this has since been received and includes a requirement of PNB to consider and agree such recommendations by the 26th July 2011, which is the date of a future PNB meeting and is an extremely challenging timescale.
The Official Side tabled a letter, which bore a remarkable resemblance to the Ministerial Statement made by the Home Secretary on 31 March 2011. Staff Side reserved it’s position and indicated it would respond formally at the PNB meeting next week on the 14th April.
Meeting dates have been agreed for the working group on a weekly basis from week commencing the 9th May 2011.
I will keep you informed of any developments.
Regards
Ian Rennie
General Secretary - Police Federation of E&W
The Chair and General Secretary of the PFEW were called to see the Home Secretary yesterday (30th March) where they were informed that her intention was to submit a written Ministerial Statement to Parliament today (31st) informing the House that she would be sending the Winsor Report in its entirety to the Police Negotiating Board (PNB) and Police Arbitration Tribunal, with a direction that it be dealt with as a matter of urgency. This did occur and the document is attached.
As a result the following response was made by the PFEW in response to the Ministerial Statement;
"Whilst these are merely proposals at this stage we remain extremely disappointed that Tom Winsor's report fails to demonstrate any evidence based methodology or reasoning. Even more disappointing is that the Home Secretary is choosing to put forward a flawed report of personal views, not evidence, to the Police Negotiating Board.
"We expect the Police Negotiating Board will give each proposal the in-depth analysis and consideration it deserves before any decision on any of the proposals is made. To make any changes to police terms and conditions, the unique working arrangements and special relationship the police have in society must at all times be borne in mind.
"Whilst police officers understand that these are just proposals at this stage, they are putting their last ounce of faith in this government to honour the processes and procedures in place to protect their unique working status. It is therefore incumbent on the Home Secretary that she honours the decisions of the negotiating machinery.
"Many of the proposals put forward in the Winsor Report cause grave concern and consternation amongst the rank and file, particularly as some officers would suffer a pay cut of up to £4000. It is clear that police officers will be the biggest victims of the financial cuts in the public sector as this would be in addition to a two year pay freeze and possible increased pension costs. The 20% budget cuts imposed by this government will not only see a reduction in the numbers of officers fighting crime but will also impact on the unique working arrangements of police officers which reflect the dangerous and often thankless job they do."
Dear Colleague,
I would like to draw your attention to the following website which shows the effect on an officer’s income of the Winsor recommendations:
http://review.police.uk/publications/review-recommendations
After inputting the required information, many members will find that their pay falls as a result of these changes.
Even for those whose pay appears to rise, it is important to remember that these calculations only show changes to income in cash terms.
Inflation is currently running at 5% and is forecast to be close to this level for at least the next 12 months, so the value of basic pay will fall as a result of the two-year pay freeze which the Government wishes to impose upon us.
These calculations also take no account of the fact that under the Winsor recommendations officers will not move up their pay increments. This means that if an officer is not at the top of his or her pay scale, their pay will actually be lower than it would otherwise have been, despite any increases that result from Mr Winsor’s recommendations.
I should also point out, for your information, that while Mr Winsor factors in pension contribution increases, these have yet to be discussed by the Police Negotiating Board, and we have been assured that discussions will take place there before any increases are implemented.
In common with all other employees, though, from April 2011 there will be several changes to the income tax and national insurance regimes. In particular:
The effect of this is that employees with total earnings of more than £35,000 a year will find themselves paying more in income tax and national insurance contributions.
I hope that you find this information helpful to understand the true impact of the Winsor recommendations on you take home pay. The PFEW will engage fully on negotiations over these recommendations, but we have no intention of agreeing to any changes which would see a fall in our members’ pay and conditions of service. As I have tried to do throughout this process, I will continue to keep you updated on developments.
Regards
Ian Rennie
General Secretary - Police Federation of England and Wales
Click here to view a video message to members from Paul McKeever, Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales – 18 March 2011.
Dear Colleague
Please find attached for your information a briefing note on the reduced Annual Allowance which will come into effect from 6 April 2011.
In October last year the Government announced its proposals for a new regime of restricting pensions tax relief which will apply to all members of all registered pension schemes, including the PPS 1987 and NPPS 2006.
The Annual Allowance is the maximum amount of pension savings an individual can have each year that receives tax relief. There is no limit on the amount that can be saved in a pension scheme, but there is a limit on the amount which receives tax relief each year.
Currently the Annual Allowance for 2010/11 is £255,000. It is straightforward to determine the level of contributions put into a defined contribution scheme over a given period and to assess that against the Annual Allowance. However, it is more complicated for defined benefit schemes such as the PPS and NPPS. The current method for calculating the amount of pension saving for a defined benefit scheme is to multiply the increase in the value of the pension by a flat factor of 10.
However, it is proposed that the Annual Allowance for 2011/12 will reduce to £50,000 and be fixed at this level until at least 2015/16. In addition, the defined benefit flat factor will increase to 16.
The provisions will be finalised when the Finance Act 2011 receives Royal Assent and they will come into force on 6 April 2011.
The briefing note contains further details about the proposed changes to the Annual Allowance and includes illustrative examples, which I hope will be of assistance.
You will appreciate that this is a very busy time and I would be grateful if JBB Chairs or Secretaries only would contact the Research Department with queries on the Annual Allowance. Please do not direct individual members or federation representatives to the Research Department.
Regards
Ian Rennie
General Secretary - Police Federation of E&W
The Police Federation and Police Superintendents' Association represent the interests of police officers from the rank of constable to chief superintendent throughout England and Wales.
Last week the former Rail Regulator Tom Winsor published a report containing 62 recommendations concerning the pay and conditions of police officers in England & Wales.
We recognise that it is over thirty years since the last full review of police officers' pay and conditions. The Edmund Davies Review heralded a long period of stability in policing where officers had confidence and trust in the arrangements to determine police pay. Police officers could go about the challenging and often dangerous business of protecting and serving the public confident that their contribution was valued and respected by government.
That stability, confidence and trust, hard earned by a work force that does not have industrial rights like others in the public and private sector, is now at risk.
We fully understand the fiscal difficulties this government faces and accept that the police service should take a fair share of the savings expected right across the public sector.
However, no other group of public servants have been singled out and subjected to an additional review of pay and conditions that, if fully implemented, will see almost £500 million taken out of the pay packets of police officers.
This breaks all the rules of trust and fairness and seeks to overturn agreements lawfully and legitimately entered in to through established principles of negotiation and arbitration.
Our members are disappointed at the pernicious release of disinformation that portrays police officers as overpaid and seeks to misrepresent legitimate terms and conditions as perks, bonuses and 'Spanish practices'.
The Police Federation and Superintendents' Association together will approach any negotiations to reform police pay and conditions in good faith, constructively and fairly.
Our goal is to secure a future that delivers excellent policing for the public, that recognises the value and contribution of police officers in fighting crime and protecting the public, and acknowledges the unique qualities of commitment, professionalism and courage necessary to do our job.
Above all we look to the future where we are able to recruit and retain the best people to policing; a role we believe to be crucial in protecting the citizens of our nation, preserving the Queen's Peace and ensuring our democratic freedoms.
We are rightly proud of the reputation and standing of the British Police Service the world over and together we will do all we can to preserve all that is good about it.
Paul McKeever, Chairman, Police Federation of England and Wales
Derek Barnett, President, Police Superintendents' Association of England and Wales
Dear Colleague
Please find attached for your information a briefing note on the reduced Annual Allowance which will come into effect from 6 April 2011.
In October last year the Government announced its proposals for a new regime of restricting pensions tax relief which will apply to all members of all registered pension schemes, including the PPS 1987 and NPPS 2006.
The Annual Allowance is the maximum amount of pension savings an individual can have each year that receives tax relief. There is no limit on the amount that can be saved in a pension scheme, but there is a limit on the amount which receives tax relief each year.
Currently the Annual Allowance for 2010/11 is £255,000. It is straightforward to determine the level of contributions put into a defined contribution scheme over a given period and to assess that against the Annual Allowance. However, it is more complicated for defined benefit schemes such as the PPS and NPPS. The current method for calculating the amount of pension saving for a defined benefit scheme is to multiply the increase in the value of the pension by a flat factor of 10.
However, it is proposed that the Annual Allowance for 2011/12 will reduce to £50,000 and be fixed at this level until at least 2015/16. In addition, the defined benefit flat factor will increase to 16.
The provisions will be finalised when the Finance Act 2011 receives Royal Assent and they will come into force on 6 April 2011.
The briefing note contains further details about the proposed changes to the Annual Allowance and includes illustrative examples, which I hope will be of assistance.
You will appreciate that this is a very busy time and I would be grateful if JBB Chairs or Secretaries only would contact the Research Department with queries on the Annual Allowance. Please do not direct individual members or federation representatives to the Research Department.
Regards
Ian Rennie
General Secretary - Police Federation of E&W
Dear Colleague
On Tuesday 8 March 2011, Tom Winsor delivered the first part of his review to reduce police officers’ pay and conditions of service.
The report was commissioned by the Home Secretary and we await her decision as to which of the recommendations she accepts and then directs the Official Side to table as claims at the Police Negotiating Board. These negotiations are likely to take several months before they are concluded.
Not unsurprisingly the recommendations within Tom Winsor’s report propose the removal of nearly £500 million a year from the police pay bill. Despite the Home Office spin that there will be “winners and losers” let me assure you that by removing this amount of money from the police pay bill there will be no winners.
Basic salaries will be frozen for two years from September 2011. With inflation running at 5% over two years this would see the value your average salary fall by over 10% in real terms.
Winsor’s recommendations will also reduce your pensionable pay on top of that 10% cut:
On top of these proposals, if you are an officer who falls into one of the following groups, you may see you pay cut by even more:
These figures are based on averages and some officers will receive more than the sums mentioned here, while some will get less or none at all.
There may be officers who appear to benefit from some of the changes that Winsor has proposed, but it will depend on how the recommendations are implemented.
The introduction of an additional shift premium at first sounds attractive, particularly as he proposes that officers should receive an additional 10% of their basic pay. Unfortunately this is not the shift allowance that he states so many officers have told him that they want. It is in fact paid on an hourly basis only for the hours that you work outside of 8am and 6pm. As a police officer you can be directed to work at any time but if this proposal is introduced it would result in you suffering a financial detriment if your duties are changed by management to work within these hours.
The introduction of an interim Expertise and Professional Accreditation Allowance, which replaces the current SPP scheme in all but name will reduce the amount forces currently pay to officers.
The proposed removal of the ‘Hertfordshire Agreement’ that currently remunerates officers who are on ‘Mutual Aid’ or ‘Held in Reserve’ and to replace it with pay only for the hours that are worked, will significantly reduce the amount of compensation that officers receive for being directed to work anywhere in the UK and the subsequent disruption to your family life.
The proposed change to allow payment at double time if required to work on Christmas Day and seven days chosen by the officer is in effect a reduction by stealth in your pay for working public holidays. Given that all officers will not be able to nominate the actual public holidays as part of their seven days, you will end up working on those days without any compensation for the disruption of having to work on what is your current entitlement to paid family leave. There is no doubt that the seven days that you nominate will be subject to approval as currently applies to annual leave and other time off. They will be subject to minimum staffing levels being available so that there will be no requirement for you to work and be paid double time. This will result in a loss of the remuneration that you currently receive for working public holidays.
Clearly the proposals within the Winsor Report have the potential to significantly reduce the remuneration that you currently receive for performing your duties.
That is why the PFEW will fully engage in the negotiating process at the Police Negotiating Board and will fight to retain the current value of police officers’ terms and conditions of service. I can assure you that we will use every means at our disposal to resist any detrimental changes to officers’ pay and conditions of service.
These are difficult and challenging times for the police service.
Never has there been such an attack on our pay and conditions.
Never has it been more important for us to stand together and support each other.
This is the most important ‘officer requiring assistance’ call you will ever have to respond to as a police officer.
We will keep you fully informed of any developments, including how you can support our campaign to defend your terms and conditions.
Regards
Ian Rennie
General Secretary - Police Federation of E&W
Dear Colleagues
Today Lord Hutton published his final report on public service pension provision. Please see below a link to the report:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/indreview_johnhutton_pensions.htm
This is a detailed report of over 200 pages containing 27 recommendations that will impact on all public sector pension schemes including the Police Pension Schemes. Lord Hutton's recommendations are part of a series of changes being proposed for public service pensions.
In the Emergency Budget in June 2010 the Government proposed a move from RPI to CPI for revaluing pension benefits. In addition, in its Comprehensive Spending Review last October, the Government proposed an average 3 % increase in member contributions to be phased in from April 2012.
Any changes to the Police Pension Schemes must be consulted on within the Police Negotiating Board (PNB), the first relevant meeting of which took place on Thursday 10th March 2011. At that meeting, representatives of the Home Office informed us that Lord Hutton's final report was now with the Government for a decision to be made on how the individual recommendations within the report should be progressed in respect of all the public sector pension schemes. We, therefore await direction from the Home Secretary to the Official Side of the PNB on how the recommendations should be addressed in respect of the police pension schemes. We would expect to be informed in time for the next meeting of the PNB Staff Side on 13 April 2011, to enable further discussion at the PNB Full Board on 14 April 2011.
In light of this information about the process regarding the Hutton Report, it would be inappropriate to speculate on how individual recommendations contained within the Hutton Report may impact upon the current police pension schemes until we know exactly what changes are being proposed.
Discussion also took place on the proposed increase to pension contribution rates. We were informed that formal consultation will commence in June 2011 for the Government's phased introduction of any increase from April 2012.
Please be assured that we will do everything within our means to ensure that the value of police officers' pensions continues to reflect the difficult and demanding role that police officers perform on behalf of the public. Work is currently ongoing to ensure that we are prepared for that challenge.
I will continue to keep you updated as further information becomes available.
Regards
Ian Rennie
General Secretary
Police Federation of E&W
Please see the links below for an overview from Tom Winsor of the main recommendations in his report and the initial reaction from Steve Garmston, Chairman of Humberside Police Federation.
Independent Review of Police Officers' & Staff Remuneration & Conditions - Message from Tom Winsor
Initial Reaction to the Winsor Review - Humberside Police Federation
Independent Review of Police Officer and Staff Remuneration and Conditions
“Once again our trust in this government’s ability to play fair with the police has been undermined by the double speak of the Home Secretary, Theresa May, this morning. On the one hand she celebrates the amazing work done every day by the police, recognising the incredibly tough job officers do, fighting crime and facing danger. Yet she sees fit to reward them with pay cuts and uncertainty over their terms and conditions.
"It has taken 40 years to build fair and reasonable terms and conditions for police officers that encourages recruitment and helps retain those with the most experience. This has resulted in record numbers of police officers, but this government seems intent on turning the clock back four decades in four years.
“Instead of waiting for the Winsor Report to be published next week the Home Secretary has showed her hand and appears set to forge ahead with her own agenda; cutting the pay and terms and conditions of police officers as well as cutting police numbers. This makes a mockery of the independent report Mr Winsor has undertaken and the engagement with police stakeholders.
"The hollow words of praise from the Home Secretary are meaningless today. She has made police officers across the country feel completely undervalued."
Pay cuts for police officers are essential in order to minimise front-line job losses at forces in England and Wales, the home secretary has said.
Three-quarters of the budget, £11bn, goes on pay, and Theresa May told force leaders in London that must change.
Mrs May said she wanted officers' pay to be frozen for two years along with that of other public sector workers.
Simon Reed, from the Police Federation, said she "clearly undervalued" the work of officers and morale would suffer.
The government is planning to cut its funding for the police by 20% by 2015.
Mrs May's speech comes ahead of the publication of a review of police wages and conditions next week.
The review, by former rail regulator Tom Winsor, will consider cuts to overtime payments, and housing and travel allowances, and will also suggest changes to shift patterns, and procedures for retirement and redundancy.
Police 'let down'
The home secretary told the meeting in Westminster the government had identified ways of making savings by cutting bureaucracy and improving the procurement of equipment and other services.
But she said: "There's no question that pay restraint and pay reform must form part of the package.
"I want to protect police jobs and keep officers on the street, and we can only do that if we reform pay and conditions for all officers."
If you are going to find savings, pay is a good place to start”
End Quote Spokesman for David Cameron
The government announced last year that it would introduce a two-year pay freeze for all public sector workers earning £21,000 or more.
Mrs May said that subject to any recommendations from the police negotiating board, implementation of the freeze in 2011-12 and 2012-13 would save £350m.
During Prime Minister's Questions, David Cameron said the police were being "let down by a system that has far too many officers in back-office roles".
"That's what needs to change, along with some of the working practices that frankly aren't actually modern and up to date," he said.
"We need to make sure that happens so we keep the maximum number of police on the front line in our communities."
And he added: "As in so many areas we inherited a police service [that was] completely inefficient, not properly managed by the party opposite."
Earlier, the prime minister's official spokesman told reporters: "If you are going to find savings, pay is a good place to start."
'End bonuses'
But Mr Reed, vice-chairman of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, said Mrs May's talk of reform was "a euphemism for cuts".
"She clearly undervalues what we do, despite what she says. Words are cheap, but actions speak louder," he said.
Mr Reed also said the pay freeze would mean "a considerable sacrifice" for officers and their families, and accused the home secretary of undermining the Winsor review by making her speech ahead of its publication.
The Association of Chief Police Officers has suggested scrapping a host of additional payments and bonuses, as well as reducing the amount of overtime paid for working on public holidays.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson has also called for an end to all bonuses for police officers.
But the BBC's home affairs correspondent Andy Tighe said there were fears within the Police Federation, which represents officers, that removing additional payments for anti-social or dangerous work could deter high-quality candidates from applying to join the police.
In 2008, the then Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith rejected a recommended pay increase, but was forced to back down after marches by officers.
Last year, a report by the independent Centre for Crime and Justice Studies said spending on overtime in England and Wales had increased by 90% since 1998 despite a record rise in the number of officers.
The police overtime bill in 2009 was nearly £400m.
I want to talk today about the tough decisions we need to take as we reform the police. But I want to first recognise just what a tremendous job individual police officers do day in, day out.
Arresting violent offenders, putting themselves in harm’s way, going unarmed into dangerous situations – these are the sort of things that officers know could happen to them any time they put on the uniform.
Last week I attended a commendation ceremony for my constituency police force, Thames Valley. There, an award was presented to Detective Constable Luke Simms.
DC Simms’ story is quite remarkable – he tried to arrest an armed robber even though he knew the offender was carrying a knife, he knew he had a history of violence and he knew he himself was unarmed and was not wearing protective clothing. Despite all of this, he still tackled this violent and dangerous criminal, who is now thankfully behind bars.
Only yesterday, PC Graham Hislop received a similar commendation from the Metropolitan Police. PC Hislop single-handedly stopped a street battle between two south London gangs armed with petrol bombs, sticks and knives. He was in his patrol car, alone, when he came across the two gangs lined up for battle. He radioed for back up but before it could arrive the two groups started running towards each other. Instinctively, PC Hislop drove his car between the two gangs, causing them to scatter, before jumping out to arrest a gang member. Police units soon arrived to arrest others.
It’s that sort of bravery that people find astonishing. But it is the sort of story we hear so often of police officers.
Those officers are desperate to spend more time fighting crime; to be out on the streets instead of behind their desks. That’s why they joined the service and that’s what they love doing.
So let me take this opportunity to say to every officer: thank you for everything you do to keep us safe.
But when I talk to police men and women – of all ranks – it’s clear that their achievements are more often than not despite the system rather than because of it. There’s too much box-ticking and not enough discretion. Too much paperwork and not enough action. Too much form filling and not enough crime fighting.
That’s just part of the reason why we have such a comprehensive programme of police reform.
Our police reforms are based on the need to address three main problems.
After years of bureaucratic control from Whitehall, the police are too tied up in red tape to fight crime as effectively as they can.
Locally the public don’t have enough of a say over policing in their communities.
And nationally, the very serious problem of organised crime has for too long been neglected.
Of course, we also have to meet these challenges at a time when we will have to reduce police spending. When the last government doubled our national debt and left us with the biggest deficit in the G7, we simply don’t have a choice about whether we cut spending or by how much. The police, along with the rest of the public sector, will have to take its share of the burden.
But the need to reduce spending means that the case for reform is more important, more urgent, than ever.
Central to our reforms is the idea that we need to get the Home Office out of the way, and we need to start trusting the police to exercise their professional judgement and discretion. So we are sweeping away the bureaucracy of the old system. Targets, initiatives, ring-fenced spending. They will all eventually go.
I’ve scrapped the last remaining national police targets, and replaced them with a single objective: to cut crime.
I’ve responded to incidents like the Cumbria and Northumbria shootings not with new gun crime initiatives, but by respecting the operational independence of the police. And from 2013, when police and crime commissioners set their first budgets, I will end the ring-fenced central policing grants that we have not already scrapped.
When I said in my first speech as Home Secretary that I didn’t want to run the police, I meant it.
So we’re scrapping the stop and account form, and cutting the reporting requirements for the stop and search form, saving up to 800,000 man hours per year. We’re restoring police discretion over certain charging decisions, saving a further 50,000 man hours per year. And we’re determined to go further. With the police, we are looking at sweeping away a wide range of the red tape, bureaucracy and paperwork that get in the way of officers doing what they want to do – getting out onto the streets and keeping us safe.
So we will soon be issuing new guidance that supports officers who do the right thing to protect the public – when they put themselves at risk, they shouldn’t be worrying about breaching health and safety rules.
We will also update the Police and Criminal Evidence Act Codes on arrest and custody procedures and will look to eliminate any unnecessary bureaucracy within them.
And we are considering how we can cut the red tape associated with the recording of crimes.
Our reforms are also based on the premise that the police must be accountable not to civil servants in Whitehall but to the communities they serve. We’re making that happen by legislating, right now, for the election of police and crime commissioners, across England and Wales.
The Bill will shortly enter report stage in the House of Commons. I am looking forward to the coming debate in the House of Lords, where there is a wealth of experience and expertise on policing.
Police and Crime Commissioners will have the power to set the police budget, determine local policing priorities and hire and fire chief constables.
But let me make clear, this will in no way affect the operational independence of the police. We’ve listened to the police and we’ve responded. So we have strengthened the proposed oversight arrangements and it will be my responsibility as Home Secretary to issue a Strategic Policing Requirement for the response to national threats.
As important as the elections for Police and Crime Commissioners will be, we want this new sense of accountability to exist day in, day out, and not just every four years. So we will also mandate police forces to hold local beat meetings on a regular basis.
To make this accountability work, we are giving the public access to the most detailed street-level crime data in the world. One month after launching the country’s first-ever nationwide street-level crime maps, the website has received over 380 million hits.
That’s 380 million examples of people eager to know what is going on in their community, desperately keen to play their part in making their streets safer. That sort of enthusiasm for engagement with the police gives a very strong indication of what we can achieve if we reconnect the public and the police.
The third challenge is the need to fight organised crime.
Organised criminals do not respect police force boundaries just as they do not respect international borders.
Sir Paul Stephenson said last year that our current law enforcement response is having an effect on only 11% of the 6000 organised crime groups that have been identified. That is unacceptable.
We need a new approach to get a real grip on organised crime and to properly police our borders.
So we will soon publish our proposals to establish a National Crime Agency - a powerful body of operational crime fighters, led by a senior Chief Constable. The NCA will harness intelligence, analytical and enforcement capabilities and will have a strong government-backed mandate for coordinating the national fight against organised crime.
The National Crime Agency should let no organised criminal feel untouchable, it should tolerate no aspect of their criminal behaviour, and it should mean no community will live with the fall out from organised crime, such as the scourge of drugs on our streets.
As I said earlier, we have to meet the challenge of police reform at the same time as we meet the challenge of reducing police spending. And we have to do that while protecting – indeed, improving – frontline police services.
We struck a tough but fair settlement for the police in the spending review.
In real terms, the average reduction in central government funding for the police will be around 5.5% per year. Assuming that local precepts rise in line with the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecasts, the overall average real terms reduction will be around 4% per year. But given that three quarters of all police spending is on pay – and given also the likelihood that police pay will be frozen for two years along with the rest of the public sector - the reality is that police force budgets will be less severely cut than the real terms figures imply.
That is not to downplay the scale of the reductions. They are challenging, yet achievable. But they will only be achieved if our police forces reform and modernise. Business as usual is not an option for our chief constables. I am confident that they understand this and will meet this challenge with determination.
I have already set out how we are slashing bureaucracy, saving hundreds of thousands of police hours per year. We are also working with the police to identify savings and efficiencies that could save more than the spending reductions the police will need to achieve – without hitting the frontline service.
For example, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary estimated that £1.15 billion per year could be saved if only the least efficient forces brought themselves up to the average level of efficiency. And it’s clear that forces can go further still. I want all forces to raise themselves up to the level, not of the average, but of the most efficient forces.
Across a range of back office or what we call middle office functions – like finance, HR, training, custody and control rooms – forces can and must improve their productivity. If forces improved productivity and adjusted to the level of spend typical in the more efficient forces, we could add another £350 million of savings to those calculated in HMIC’s report.
Look at Suffolk and Norfolk, where they are creating a shared service platform for their back office support functions. This will deliver savings of approximately £10 million per year from their joint budgets.
Or look at Kent, where they are streamlining and rationalising support services, and collaborating with Essex police to make savings and allow more resources to be devoted to the frontline.
These forces show that it is possible to make significant savings in the back office to protect and improve frontline services. Their example can and must be replicated up and down the country.
And there are ways that the police can make the frontline more efficient too, while increasing visibility and availability on the streets, and without spending any more money.
So, for example, HMIC has found that there are often more police officers available on a Monday morning than there are on a Friday night. And they also found that only 11% of officers are visible and available to the public at any one time. That’s not to say that 89% of police time is wasted, but visibility and availability has to improve.
Better management and organisation can increase availability. And better rostering and shifts can increase availability at peak times.
In London the Met have done just that. By getting more officers to patrol alone - rather than in pairs - and by better matching resources to demand in neighbourhood policing they are increasing officer availability to the public by 25%.
I know other forces including Gloucestershire are taking the same steps. All forces should be following their example.
At the same time as we make these savings and efficiencies, we also need to modernise procurement practices and IT. It makes absolutely no sense for the police to be procuring things in 43 different ways. It makes absolutely no sense for the police to have 2,000 different IT systems across the 43 forces, as they do at present.
For too long the police service has been a fragmented customer; spending more and gaining less than it should do from its suppliers. Police spending on non-pay items is now around one-quarter of their total spend – some three and a half billion pounds per year – so the potential savings are substantial.
We have already made excellent progress. We have secured agreement from the leaders of the police service that the right way forward is a national, joined-up approach, with better contracts, more joint purchasing, a smaller number of different IT systems and greater private sector involvement.
With these changes we can save hundreds of millions of pounds and, again, that is over and above the savings which HMIC have identified.
So, on Friday new regulations will come into effect to put these ideas into practice for police vehicles, body armour and a range of police IT.
But in an organisation like the police, where £11 billion – three quarters of total spending – is on pay, there is no question that pay restraint and pay reform must form part of the package.
That is why we believe – subject to any recommendations from the Police Negotiating Board – that the there should be a two year pay freeze in policing, just as there has been across the public sector. This would save at least £350 million.
And that is why I commissioned Tom Winsor to review police pay and conditions. Not because I want to make savings for the sake of it, but because I want to protect police jobs and I want to keep officers on the streets.
We can only do that if we reform terms and conditions for all officers.
No Home Secretary wants to cut police officers’ pay packages. But, with a record budget deficit, these are extraordinary circumstances.
As I have made clear today, we are taking action right across the board to find savings and efficiencies in all aspects of policing. We are doing everything we can to minimise the effect of the spending reductions on pay. But we cannot avoid the fact that changes to pay and conditions have to be part of the package.
And I want action on pay to be as fair as possible. Not only are we determined to cut out waste and inefficiency first, we must also make sure that pay recognises and rewards front line service. So when I launched the review I asked Tom Winsor to take this into account.
Up and down the country, police officers and staff I speak to – as well as ordinary members of the public – say they would prefer us to look at pay and conditions rather than lose thousands of posts.
The Winsor Review will be the most comprehensive review of police pay and conditions in more than thirty years. I have asked Tom to make recommendations that will let the police manage their resources to serve the public more effectively and to get better value for taxpayers’ money.
I want his recommendations to enable modern management practices to be implemented, help the service to manage their budgets, maximise officer and staff deployment to frontline roles and enable frontline services to be maintained and improved.
The review’s conclusions must be fair, and they must be seen to be fair. Police officers cannot strike – and that is not going to change. I have emphasised today just how dangerous and difficult their job is. Police officers should be rewarded fairly and reasonably for what they do.
But the police leadership need to have the flexibility to manage their forces and protect the frontline. And now, more than ever, the taxpayer needs to get a fair deal from all parts of the public sector.
I will not see the Winsor Review until it is published on Tuesday. I will study its recommendations carefully. They will also be subject to consideration by the police negotiating bodies. But I must be clear: to make savings in any organisation where pay packages are the biggest cost, we have to look at pay.
I know that these are challenging times for rank and file police officers and staff. They will need – and the public will need - the leadership of the police service to rise to the challenge.
Tough decisions will need to be taken by leaders who have the confidence of their frontline, of the public, and, shortly, of their Police and Crime Commissioners.
But the current structure, status and accountability arrangements of ACPO are not suitable. This is something that I know Sir Hugh Orde and other senior Chiefs recognise – and it is something we and they need to address.
Nobody is pretending that these decisions are easy. But they are necessary to save police jobs and deliver our plan to cut crime.
And nobody doubts that they will be challenging to deliver. But the police always has been and always will be a ‘can do’ service – and I know that they have the sense of duty and determination to deliver the changes we need to make.
They are changes that we will have to make together. The result will be a police force with its powers enhanced, its discretion restored, its professionalism respected, flexible to deliver on the frontline – and free to cut crime.
Thank you.
Dear Colleagues,
Further to my update of 3 February, I can now confirm that Lord Hutton will publish his final report on 10 March setting out his recommendations on the structure of public sector pension arrangements.
The final report will be available on the Treasury website on the day of publication: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/indreview_johnhutton_pensions.htm
As I stated in my earlier message, the PFEW has given detailed evidence, through the Staff Side of the PNB which is available on our website, and we have also made representations to Lord Hutton and his advisors at a number of meetings.
I should also stress that this final report is separate to the interim report which has already been published by Lord Hutton. Following the publication of the interim Hutton Report last October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the Comprehensive Spending Review, proposed that there should be an average 3% increase in contributions rates for members of public sector pension schemes phased in from April 2012.
Any increase to contribution rates will involve consultation with the Police Federation of England and Wales by the Home Office through the Police Negotiating Board.
We will keep you updated once we become aware of Lord Hutton’s final recommendations and their implication for police officers.
A copy of this statement will also be available on the PFEW.
Yours sincerely,
Ian Rennie
General Secretary
Dear Colleagues
As far as we are aware and from the Police Minister’s comments last week, the first phase of the Independent Review of Police Officers’ and Staff Remuneration and Conditions will still conclude on Monday 7th March with the publication of Tom Winsor’s interim report.
We trust that the evidence we have given in our two thoroughly-researched, comprehensive submissions will have led Mr Winsor to conclusions which will safeguard the future of the police service with a well-motivated force of warranted officers secure in their terms and conditions. These submissions are available on the PFEW website at: www.polfed.org
To ensure your views were heard, the PFEW has met with Mr Winsor and his team on several occasions over the course of this review, including the General Secretary attending the following seminars:
If you wish to read more, the transcripts of those seminars are available at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/police/police-remun-and-conditions/police-review-seminars/
In addition Mr Winsor has held bilateral talks with the PFEW Chairman and General Secretary on the following occasions:
We are confident that Mr Winsor fully understands the nature of our concerns and of the evidence we have presented to him. We trust that his independent report will similarly make evidenced recommendations that we can have confidence in for the benefit of policing.
A copy of this e-mail will be available on the PFEW website to update members.
Regards
Ian Rennie
General Secretary - Police Federation of E&W
A Message from the General Secretary re Winsor Report is now available to download.
The Rt Hon Nick Herbert MP, Minister of State for Policing & Criminal Justice - Speech to CityForum, Tuesday 25 January 2011
Click here to download the speech
The Humberside Police Federation Annual Charity Dinner held on the 6th November 2010 at the Forest Pines Hotel, Broughton raised £3,100 pounds for the Echoes Foundation its selected local charity for 2010. The money will be used to assist in purchasing a static holiday home for respite care for families with disabled children.
Steve Garmston Chair of the Police Federation stated, "Over one hundred and fifty people attended the event and it was a superb evening. The Humberside Police Federation were proud to be able to support the Echoes Foundation. We would like to thank all those that supported the evening including our Federation members, of whom there were more attended than any previous year, colleagues from around the country, the guests from the Echoes Foundation including the RH Alan JOHNSON MP a patron of the Charity and especially those companies and member services who donated superb prizes for the raffle.
http://www.echoesfoundation.co.uk/
From left to right in the picture Steve Garmston (Chair of the Police Federation), Claire Stockton (The Echoes Foundation), Kev Rack (JBB Secretary)
We are currently looking for a relevant Charity for 2011 should anyone have any suggestions please contact Kev Rack the JBB Secretary with details.
Staff Side welcomes the opportunity to provide further evidence and comments to the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission.
The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) welcomes this opportunity to provide a supplementary submission to the Independent Review of Police Officers’ and Staff Remuneration and Conditions. Having had the opportunity to consider the points made by other stakeholders in their initial submissions to the Review, the PFEW takes the opportunity in this submission to address some of those points, while also providing further evidence in support of the positions set out in its own initial submission.
Please click on the link above for further details.
The submissions currently received in response to the Review of Police Remuneration and Conditions, of which there are 28, have now been made available on the Review Website - www.review.police.uk
Below are the relevant submissions from ACPO, the NPIA and the APA which will give you an indication of the thought process of the individual groups together with the first PFEW response.
This is a fast moving piece of work and whilst there is no time scale for submitting further responses, the National Federation were informed by Tom Winsor last week that with the publication of his report expected by the middle of February next year, the earlier any further responses are received the more time there would be for him to consider them. The National Federation would therefore hope to provide such a PFEW response, if not by the end of November, within the first couple of weeks of December, we will advise when this has been submitted.
PFEW Submission to the Independent Review of Police Officers’ and Staff Remuneration and Conditions
APA Response to The Review of Remuneration and Conditions of Service for Police Officers and Staff
ACPO SUBMISSION - Independent Review of Police Officers and Staff Remuneration and Conditions
Dear colleagues,
Easily the number one issue which you the members have been expressing your concern about lately, is the ongoing shift review, which proposes changing the current VSA for a 4 shift, possibly 8 hour pattern. We have been fully engaged with the Force, with the clear agenda that:-
Without wishing to relinquish the Force of any of its’ responsibility, it is important, in order that we can represent your best interests, we know what the likely impacts will be from your perspective. In setting the questionnaire, I have made the not unreasonable assumption, that a 4 shift system will involve working blocks of 7 consecutive days between rest days. Though the survey is completely anonymous, please complete it honestly, whether that results in a good, bad or indifferent apparent personal outcome, as this will only have value if the process has integrity.
The results of the survey will be presented on Monday 25th October, during the Federation Open meeting at Lazaats Hotel & Restaurant, Cottingham.
Please complete by Monday 18th October (once only per member) and can I express my thanks to all of you for your interest, support and feedback received so far.
Steve Garmston
Chairman
Humberside Police Federation
01482 653480
IMPORTANT: The closing date for the Survey has now passed. Thank you very much to all those who took the time to respond.
The first edition of The Police Family, a quarterly newsletter bought to you by RJW's newly appointed family department, Divorce4Police, is now online keeping you updated on all family law matters.
At the Annual General Meeting of the Police Federation of England and Wales on 20th May 2010, conference agreed that the membership subscription rate will be increased to £4.98 a week with effect from 1st January 2011.
This is an increase of 93 pence per week before tax relief and equates to a net rise of 56 pence per week for members paying the higher tax rate and 75 pence per week for those members subject of the basic tax rate.
Please click here for full details about the voluntary subscriptions increase.
The Humberside Police Federation Annual Charity Dinner, held on the 7th November 2009 at the Forest Pines Hotel, Broughton, raised £3,200 pounds for the Teenage Cancer Trust. The money will be used to build a fur bed unit for teenagers at the Castle Hill Cancer Care Unit, Cottingham.
Steve Garmston Chair of the Police Federation stated, "Over one hundred and eighty people attended the event and it was a great success. The Humberside Police Federation were proud to be able to support such a worthwhile cause, we would like to thank all those that supported the evening including our Federation members, of whom there were more attended than any previous year, colleagues from around the country, the guests from the Teenage Cancer Trust and especially those companies who donated some memorable prizes for the raffle.
From left to right in the picture Steve Garmston (Chair of the Police Federation), Lisa Pallett (Teenage Cancer Trust), Kev Rack (JBB Secretary) & Will Richardson (Humberside Police Employee & supporter of the TCT who suggested the charity for the evening).
George Osborne has put his cards on the table, despite Labour trying to saw away its legs at the time, and revealed the Conservatives' plan for getting Britain out of its £175bn black hole while safeguarding jobs and public services.
He described a public sector pay freeze as the "best way" of protecting frontline public services and jobs. But was he right? Will the move achieve the intended goal? Was there a better option, one that was less painful perhaps?
Article published by Public Servant (7th October 2009) - http://www.publicservice.co.uk/pub_servant.asp
New civilian investigators are being brought into Humberside Police with “indecent haste” and are too quickly promoted through the ranks, according to Humberside Police Federation.
Humberside Police is part way through its “workforce modernisation” programme, which will eventually see more than 300 police officers replaced by a larger number of lower-paid specialist support staff. The C Division, covering the East Riding, recently began training the new civilian investigators.
But the chairman of Humberside Police Federation Steve Garmston doubts whether the three years they have leaves enough time for them to be trained and adequately experienced.
He said: “All I would say is what has been done is indecent haste.
“There’s a real rush to get these people so on paper they have the skills so police officers can be removed and savings can be made and actually when you look at the capability they are not going to be competent for a number of years.”
The programme has been completed in Grimsby where to fill higher-rank positions they were going through a “grow your own” process. He said: “The truth is they are promoting them far too quickly to get them through the ranks and competence is almost a secondary requisite.”
His views were disputed by Detective Chief Inspector Dave Rawding, the programme’s deputy executive. He admitted it got off to a rocky start but said lessons had been learned.
No officers were being made redundant and the new “IOs” were taking on tasks detectives did not like – like paperwork.
He said: “A number of retired police officers have taken up the role including previous Federation reps which tells its own story.
“This is just about looking after public money. Police officers are expensive commodities and – take a serious assault, things like looking at CCTV or moving exhibits, are critical to the success of the investigation but don’t need police officers’ powers to do it.”
When the project started there were “ambitions” about the speed new staff could be trained. “With experience we have reviewed those plans and put very stringent checks and balances to ensure they are ready for progression, ” he said.
Mr Rawding said the changes were part of the way police services continued to evolve. With massive cuts in spending on the way, the force was ahead of the game, with recurring savings of £2m a year.