We Need Clarity From Government On ‘Outrageous’ Pay Situation

THE Government needs to engage with the Police Federation and increase funding for policing, as there is “a lot of ill feeling” from officers, the Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

Politicians are preparing to lay out their plans for policing this autumn, with Home Secretary Priti Patel likely to speak at The Superintendents’ Conference in September, and the Conservative Party Conference going ahead in October.

In July the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) said it had “no confidence” in the Home Secretary following the announcement of a pay freeze for the majority of officers, and Ms Patel is not currently engaging with the Federation.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said that the police pay situation was “absolutely outrageous” and that it was vital the Government worked with the police when it was planning its policing policies.

He said: “There needs to be a recognition from the Government that we want to sort these issues out. I think it’s important for us to work with them going forward.

“Yes, we’ve known for some time that we weren’t getting a pay rise this year, but what we do need to know and be reassured about is that that’s not going to be the status quo going forward, and we’re not facing another scenario like in 2010 when we didn’t have a pay rise for several years. There needs to be a revisiting of that, because the pay situation with police at the moment is absolutely outrageous.”

Steve added that Ms Patel needed to keep putting the case for increasing police funding to Parliament.

He said: “Priti Patel needs to carry on with the rhetoric of actually increasing funding for police officers because, as we know, just putting the cops back in the streets that we’ve lost over the past 10 years isn’t good enough.

“We definitely know now that there needs to be continued investment in policing and we need to see that set out – we need to see a roadmap of what that’s going to look like. We need to see a positive tone coming from her.

“Because there’s a lot of ill feeling out there. More so than I’ve ever felt, even including when the Winsor Review first came in and pensions were decimated. Every cop is feeling this and every cop is angry.”