Independent Review of Police Officer and Staff Remuneration and ...

Negotiating machinery
Summary
32 The development of police officer pay negotiating machinery over the last century can only
be described as convoluted. Rather than being designed, the evolution of police officer pay
negotiating machinery has been driven by responses to events and crises, such as the police
strikes of 1918 and 1919. As a result, the police service has ended up with negotiating
machinery which is costly, cumbersome, bureaucratic and slow, and which has proven itself
poor at reaching decisions.
33 The Police Negotiating Board was devised in 1978, in parallel with the recommendation of
a formula for the automatic uprating of officers’ pay. During the years when the so-called
Edmund-Davies formula was in operation, the PNB worked well. However, from 2006 onwards
it has failed to produce timely negotiated settlements on the most material issues. The PNB’s
reliance on the Police Arbitration Tribunal – 17 times between 2000/01 and 2010/11, not even
including for the recommendations of Part 1 of this review – demonstrates that the PNB has
not achieved its principal objective of reaching agreement through negotiation, and has instead
too often turned difficult questions over to a group of independent individuals to decide for
them. In effect, the police service already has a pay review body, in the form of the PAT. But
that 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 up
to the rank of chief superintendent. Chief officers’ pay and conditions should be determined by
the 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 Staff
Council be funded by its respective police forces so that the PSC can conduct much needed
data analysis in this field.
36 The principal recommendations concerning the negotiating machinery include:
• Recommendation 115 – The Police Negotiating Board should be abolished and replaced by
an independent police officer pay review body by late 2014.
• Recommendation 118 – The Senior Salaries Review Body should take responsibility
for setting the pay of Chief Constables, Deputy Chief Constables and Assistant Chief
Constables by 2014.
• Recommendation 119 – The Police Staff Council should receive approximately £50,000
per annum from police forces to fund regular data surveys of the remuneration and
conditions of police staff.
Phasing and next steps
37 If accepted, most of my recommendations will require referral by the Home Secretary to the
Police Negotiating Board, the Police Advisory Board of England and Wales, or the Police Staff
Council, as well as to those forces that negotiate police staff pay and conditions outside the
PSC arrangements.
38 Each Chapter of this report contains a recommended phased process for introduction. Police
officers and staff must be provided with the time to absorb change and allow for the principles
of 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 principal
recommendations and proposals for their phased implementation over several years.
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