Final Report - Volume 1 - the South Wales Police Federation

SummaryNegotiating machinery32 The development of police officer pay negotiating machinery over the last century can onlybe described as convoluted. Rather than being designed, the evolution of police officer paynegotiating machinery has been driven by responses to events and crises, such as the policestrikes of 1918 and 1919. As a result, the police service has ended up with negotiatingmachinery which is costly, cumbersome, bureaucratic and slow, and which has proven itselfpoor at reaching decisions.33 The Police Negotiating Board was devised in 1978, in parallel with the recommendation ofa formula for the automatic uprating of officers’ pay. During the years when the so-calledEdmund-Davies formula was in operation, the PNB worked well. However, from 2006 onwardsit has failed to produce timely negotiated settlements on the most material issues. The PNB’sreliance on the Police Arbitration Tribunal – 17 times between 2000/01 and 2010/11, not evenincluding for the recommendations of Part 1 of this review – demonstrates that the PNB hasnot achieved its principal objective of reaching agreement through negotiation, and has insteadtoo often turned difficult questions over to a group of independent individuals to decide forthem. In effect, the police service already has a pay review body, in the form of the PAT. Butthat review body is ill-equipped to carry out the full functions of such an entity.34 I have recommended that an independent pay review body be established for police officers upto the rank of chief superintendent. Chief officers’ pay and conditions should be determined bythe Senior Salaries Review Body.35 For police staff, the current arrangements work well and consultees argued for their retention.However, the poor data available on basic management issues in the police service is striking.This is especially true for data on police staff. Accordingly, I recommend that the Police StaffCouncil be funded by its respective police forces so that the PSC can conduct much neededdata analysis in this field.36 The principal recommendations concerning the negotiating machinery include:• Recommendation 115 – The Police Negotiating Board should be abolished and replaced byan independent police officer pay review body by late 2014.• Recommendation 118 – The Senior Salaries Review Body should take responsibilityfor setting the pay of Chief Constables, Deputy Chief Constables and Assistant ChiefConstables by 2014.• Recommendation 119 – The Police Staff Council should receive approximately £50,000per annum from police forces to fund regular data surveys of the remuneration andconditions of police staff.Phasing and next steps37 If accepted, most of my recommendations will require referral by the Home Secretary to thePolice Negotiating Board, the Police Advisory Board of England and Wales, or the Police StaffCouncil, as well as to those forces that negotiate police staff pay and conditions outside thePSC arrangements.38 Each Chapter of this report contains a recommended phased process for introduction. Policeofficers and staff must be provided with the time to absorb change and allow for the principlesof reform to bed in. These changes are too important to be rushed, yet too vital to delay.Achieving the correct balance will be crucial. Appendix 2 contains a summary of my principalrecommendations and proposals for their phased implementation over several years.25