s of England and Wales Upholding the Queen’s Peace: towards a new consensus on policing Police Federation Annual Reports 2012 Reports Annual Federation Police Tom Brake Shami Chakrabarti Independent Review of Police Officer Mike Chatterton Yvette Cooper John Fassenfelt and Staff Remuneration Peter Hitchens Kamaljeet Jandu Javed Khan and Conditions Paul McKeever Final Report – Volume 2 Theresa May Jayne Monkhouse Sir Denis O’Connor Sean O’Neill Sir Hugh Orde Ian Rennie Roger Seifert Edited by Raj Jethwa Cm 8325-II March 2012 Two Volumes Annual not to be sold seperately £91.00 Reports 2012 The Police FederationTypeset and of printedEngland by and Wales www.polfed.org Joint Central Committee Constables’ Central Committee Sergeants’ Central Committee Inspectors’ Central Committee JCC Subcommittees 26/02/2013 12:08 Page 1 2012 Executive Summary survey of the membership on a number of areas. Whilst some information has been released, the full survey findings will be published with the Stevens Review in the New Year. The Chairman, Paul McKeever, also gave oral evidence to the Review. The Police Federation has maintained political pressure on the Government on a number of Paul McKeever Ian Rennie key issues including police budgets, pensions, Chairman General Secretary changes to conditions of service, officer safety, complaints, governance and accountability. 2012 proved to be another turbulent and This year there was also the added dynamic of unsettling year for policing as many of the the Olympic Games, where the professionalism post-election policies introduced by the of UK police officers was witnessed by a Coalition Government started to impact on worldwide audience. police officers’ terms and conditions of service, what we do and how we do it. Throughout the year the Police Federation has taken every opportunity to raise with political The impact of the Government drive to tackle stakeholders the danger to public confidence the fiscal deficit also started to affect frontline and safety of mass privatisation of policing. delivery as we began to witness a decline in police officer numbers. The expectation that The private security debacle during the police officers could and would do more for Olympic Games gave another platform to the less further compounded the low morale Police Federation to bring this issue to public within the service. attention. The British policing model is the envy of other nations and is replicated by many The following is a summary of the key issues countries across the world. The Police for the Police Federation during 2012. There Federation will continue to fight against any is greater detail on specific issues within the erosion or threat to the politically independent relevant sub-sections contained within this Office of Constable. annual report. Fighting for police officers’ terms and A year in Parliament conditions, pay and pensions This year, despite huge pressure and a stark The year saw police officers throughout warning from the Federation as to the England and Wales facing the burden of having unintended consequences of their actions, the to do more with less; fewer resources, cuts to Coalition government continued to drive budgets; cuts to departments and numbers; ahead with its Treasury-led policy of cutting and the uncertainty of what was happening the police budget by at least 20 percent. with their own pay and pensions. Political support for no further budget cuts has grown during the year as the Federation In January, the Police Arbitration Tribunal continued to lobby backbench MPs and (PAT) decision on the Winsor One proposals Assembly Members against any further was published. The arbiters took the middle reductions in the next Comprehensive ground which left many police officers and the Spending Review. Government unsatisfied. Conscious that the Home Secretary could still veto the decision In 2011, the Labour Party had announced its and impose the Winsor One intention to conduct an independent review of recommendations, the Federation lobbied policing. This year, the Police Federation Government to ratify the PAT decision. On 30 assisted Lord Stevens’ Review by conducting a January the Home Secretary announced her The Police Federation of England and Wales Annual Report 2012 Joint Central Committee page 1 JCC Subcommittees 26/02/2013 12:08 Page 2 2012 Executive Summary intention to accept the PAT decision in full Regrettably, as was seen previously, the barrier and ratify it into Determinations. to true negotiation appeared to be political Unfortunately, a number of matters were interference. changed before implementation. We have registered our concerns and continue to talk to In July, following a considerable number of the Official Side about further changes to meetings, Staff Side registered a failure to agree Determinations. on the Winsor Two proposals and the independent Chair referred it to the Police In March, Tom Winsor published his second Arbitration Tribunal. This was particularly report on police officer and staff remuneration disappointing as, during the negotiations, a and conditions. On behalf of the membership, credible and robust alternative including a the Federation immediately attacked any significant reduction in the current and future further changes to police officers’ terms and police pay bill was proposed by Staff Side. conditions. It made clear that policing already faced a 20 per cent budget cut, the loss of That same month, together with colleagues on 16,000 police officers over four years, £300 Staff Side, we registered a failure to agree on million removed from police pay, a two-year the Winsor 2 proposals and awaited a date for pay freeze and a capped one per cent increase the Police Arbitration Tribunal. This was in years three and four. extremely disappointing as it became clear that the Home Office was not prepared to On 21 March, having read the 1,000 page negotiate or move on any of the proposals report, the Joint Central Committee (JCC) despite very credible alternatives being offered published its view that the report was by Staff Side. deliberately offensive and detrimental to policing in England and Wales. The JCC In September, as a result of the continued called upon the Home Secretary to reject the attack by Government on policing and police report that was ill-conceived, ill-considered officers’ terms and conditions, the JCC agreed and made up of previously rejected ideas. to push ahead as soon as practicable with the planned ballot of the membership on whether That same week the JCC voted unanimously they wish the Police Federation to pursue to hold a ballot of its membership on the industrial rights for police officers. question of whether police officers want full industrial rights. They also agreed to hold an The ballot will be conducted by the event in central London before the Police professional and independent polling Federation’s annual conference in May to company Electoral Reform Society (ERS) and highlight the unprecedented attack on policing will take place from 31 January to 28 by this government and the consequences that February, 2013. these cuts will have for public safety. The year ended with a sense of déjà-vu and the One week later the Home Secretary accepted same frustration and uncertainty with which it all of Tom Winsor’s part two had started. In October, over two separate recommendations and referred them to the days, the arbiters met for the Police Police Negotiating Board. The fact this Arbitration Tribunal (PAT) on Winsor Two. decision came within days of the JCC call to Their decision was received on 6 December reject the Winsor Two report demonstrated and ratified by the Home Secretary in January the contempt the Government has for police 2013. officers. Also in October, the Home Secretary A series of PNB working groups were announced a consultation on the introduction established to start the extremely difficult of a Police Pay Review Body, which would negotiations around the recommendations. mean abolishing the Police Negotiating Board The Police Federation of England and Wales Annual Report 2012 page 2 Joint Central Committee JCC Subcommittees 26/02/2013 12:08 Page 3 2012 Executive Summary (PNB). The Federation made clear in meetings petition gained painted a stark picture of the with parliamentarians and the newly elected strength of feeling and anger felt by police Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), just officers across the UK. During the debate a how effective PNB can be if left to make its number of politicians, briefed by the Police own decisions without political interference. Federation nationally and locally, spoke out The existing negotiating machinery, together against the changes to police pensions. with independent arbitration, was established to protect police officers who hold a unique To safeguard the Office of Constable, policing position in society. There is no need to change must remain independent of politics and the police pay machinery. political interference. The terms and conditions of service for police officers must In September, the Government had confirmed be fair and reflect the restrictions on police that from April 2015, the existing police officers’ professional and private lives. On pensions schemes would be replaced by career your behalf, we will continue to ensure that average pension schemes. these messages are delivered loud and clear during 2013. The Police Federation, as a constituent part of Staff Side, made the strongest possible Further detail on all the issues relating to police representations to retain the current pension pay, pensions and terms and conditions of service, arrangements for serving police officers and can be found in the PNB/PAB section of this engaged in the consultation of the Home annual report. Secretary’s proposals for police pension reform in an attempt to secure as many improvements Police march in May as possible. On 10 May over 35,000 off-duty police officers made their way to London for the General Secretary, Ian Rennie, reiterated the biggest march by police officers ever seen in Police Federation’s position when giving the UK.