THE Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) is still not fit for purpose, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.<\/p>\n
In 2021, the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) withdrew from the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB), stating that it had no independence, as its recommendations for police pay were not accepted by the Government.<\/p>\n
This year PFEW has decided again not to make a submission to the PRRB. It said in a statement: \u201cPFEW strongly feel that the PRRB could have prevented the increasing gap between the degradation of police pay in comparison to the pay of other public sector\/protected services\/frontline emergency service workers, who are continually offered substantially better pay awards than police officers if the process was, in fact, independent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve Kent, Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation, agrees, saying: \u201cUntil it\u2019s fully independent and the decisions it makes are binding, I don\u2019t see any real argument for us to go back into the PRRB. It\u2019s still not fit for purpose.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do have sympathy with the PRRB in that it is, essentially, handcuffed into what it can and can\u2019t recommend. On occasion it has been sympathetic to the plight of police officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s quite simple, it has to be independent from any scope or guidelines. And it has to be binding, because otherwise there is little or no point. It ends up just being the Government\u2019s decision, which might as well take place without their presence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steve said he would consider a system such as Scotland\u2019s Police Negotiating Board.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI would absolutely consider that; it doesn\u2019t really matter what its title is. It\u2019s the shackles of what it\u2019s bound under. The PRRB could potentially work if it was given the powers to have that autonomy. I think everybody would accept pay rises in line with a truly independent body.\u201d<\/p>\n