Final Report of the Morris Inquiry: The Case for Change

ENHANCING THE OFFICE OF CONSTABLE
3.32 Currently the terms and conditions of police officers result from negotiations
at the Police Negotiating Board (PNB). The PNB involves representatives from
ACPO, the APA and the Home Office as well as officers’ representatives. Its decisions
need to be ratified by the Home Secretary before police officers’ conditions of
service are changed.
3.33 If approved by the Home Secretary, they are laid down in Determinations
underpinned by Regulations. “The Determinations set out police officers’ basic terms and
conditions of employment in respect of their pay, hours, overtime, recall to duty, annual leave
and sickness. They also allow that managers can change duties at relatively short notice if there
is a pressing policing need. They attempt to draw a balance between management’s need to
manage and officers’ need to have an adequate work / life balance.”
(Submission from the National Police Federation.)
3.34 These terms and conditions are in effect the ‘employment contract’ of police
officers.
3.35 If our recommendation is to be accepted, and employment law extended to
officers, there will have to be a mechanism for negotiating the detailed terms and
conditions. This could be a task for the PNB or it might be appropriate to create
another body. To a certain extent it would depend on what local discretion, if any,
were thought appropriate for the Commissioner, Chief Constables and police
authorities. For example, it might be thought appropriate for there to be local
discretion in respect of the procedures for discipline and grievance handling.
On the other hand, a national system might be considered to be better.
3.36 As we have received no evidence on this point, we make no recommendation
as to the mechanism for deciding the detail of terms and conditions. We would,
however, suggest that there is no need for any terms and conditions to be
embodied in legislation.
3.37 We will comment on the kind of provisions that we believe should be
considered as part of any new terms and conditions. In addition to provisions
dealing with pay, hours, leave entitlement, etc., we consider that there should be
a disciplinary procedure along the lines of the procedures currently used for police
staff and based on the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance
Procedures. This would replace the current regulatory framework under the Police
Reform Act 2002.
3.38 We recognise that the day to day work of police officers means that there
are particular issues which need to be taken into consideration when devising a
disciplinary framework to replace the Regulations. We also recognise that there
are differing views on the efficacy of the Regulations and that this recommendation
is likely to be controversial. We will therefore say more about complaints and
discipline later in this chapter.
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