No Fed support for College of Policing subscription fee

THE Police Federation of England and Wales has said it does not support a subscription fee for officers to become part of the professional policing body.

Julia Lawrence, who represents the Federation on the College of Policing’s governing board, said that the vast majority of Federation members do not support a mandatory subscription fee.

Prior to its launch, rumours were officers of all ranks could have to pay as much as £250 to join the new professional body.

Mrs Lawrence said there was some support for a voluntary fee, particularly if an officer wanted to undertake a qualification. “But just so you understand what the Federation stance is: we do not support a membership fee,” she said.

The Federation is, however, supportive of the professionalisation process. “We know that police officers are already professionals but the College will become the mechanism to verify and further enhance our professional status,” Mrs Lawrence told conference on Wednesday.

The College questioned people involved in policing over the last few weeks. Around 3,500 people responded to the survey, of which 90 per cent were police officers.

However, Alex Marshall, chief executive officer at the College of Policing, said that a subscription would have to be considered if the body is to be independent of government and cannot raise funds in other ways.

Currently, the College costs £75m a year to run, of which £20m is raised through income. The rest comes directly from a government grant. The College, Home Office and Federation are all keen to reach a level of independence from government, which could mean the College having to raise 51 per cent of its expenditure.

“The voices are very loud coming back from policing that people are generally supportive of a professional body,” he said. “They want to see high standards and they want an investment in their development. People, not surprisingly, do not want to pay extra for it. I hear that, but we also have to look at how all the other professional bodies work and how we strike that independence from government.”

The Federation is actively involved in the design of the professional body, with a representative on the design team, governing board and professional committee.