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News round-up

PCCs urged to act

olice and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) forward a pay rise. Maybe next year the take full advantage of this flexibility, this
must do all they can to ensure funds Government will say that it can only would raise up to an extra £774 million by
Pare available to give police officers the consider a pay increase of up to four per 2024-25 based on current forecasts.
significant pay rise they deserve. cent. But also we must remember that the “Clearly, PCCs can raise additional funds
That is the view of Tim Rogers, interim Government can reject any if they need to and we hope that this is
secretary at West Midlands Police recommendations put before it. something they are actively considering. As
Federation, who was speaking after the “I think we also have to make sure that a Federation, we will be raising this issue
Chancellor confirmed that the public sector Police and Crime Commissioners get behind with our own PCC, Simon Foster, and calling
pay freeze would be lifted. police officers. They too must do their bit to on him to do all he can to support officers,”
“On the face of it, this is really good news make sure officers are given a significant pay says Tim.
for police officers and other public sector rise next year, one that reflects their role in
workers,” says Tim, “But the sceptical part of society, the work they did in the pandemic
me questions what this will actually mean. and the fact that with the rising cost of
“Police officers’ pay deal is considered by living they are in danger of once again
the Police Remuneration Review Body, a having a real terms pay cut if there is not a
supposedly independent body which proper uplift.”
considers submissions from various Tim explained that with the current
interested parties and then makes a Home Office funding settlement PCCs have
recommendation on any uplift to the the flexibility to increase funding in each
Government. year of the Spending Review 2021 period,
“But there are two crucial factors that which includes 2022-2023 and 2024-2025,
we should not forget. The review body is with a £10 million council tax referendum
given a remit by the Government and this limit.
year it was told not to consider putting If all PCCs in England and Wales were to
“ On the face of it, this is really good news for

police officers and other public sector workers,
but the sceptical part of me questions what this

will actually mean. “

Extra officers welcomed

West Midlands Police has taken on 867 welcome the uplift, the reality is we are only
new recruits under Prime Minister Boris replacing officers we have already lost and
Johnson’s Police Uplift Programme, even with the uplift, the levels will not
according to the latest figures. return to those we had before the funding
Statistics from the Home Office cuts were introduced under austerity.
showed the Force had 7,558 frontline “And during that time there has been a
officers at the end of last month with growth in new and emerging offences such
new recruits joining up as part of the as cyber-crime and online fraud and so much
Government scheme to boost numbers more is expected of the police service
by 20,000 nationwide by 2023. generally.
Jon Nott, chair of West Midlands “Policing was stretched to the limit
Police Federation at the time of the during the coronavirus pandemic and low The new Home Office figures showed
announcement, welcomed the rise in officer numbers, combined with negative a provisional headcount of 139,908
officer numbers but said the headcount media coverage and then the zero per cent officers in England and Wales at the end
was still well short of pre-austerity levels. pay offer, has had a massive negative impact of September with 11,053 recruited from
He said: “Officer numbers have fallen on morale. funding for the uplift programme.
dramatically over the last decade. At the “We all want a positive, proactive and A further 421 additional officers have
end of March 2010, we had more than effective police service and while we been recruited through other funding
8,600 officers. So, while it is good to see generally welcome the uplift, we need to streams such as local council tax precepts
the trend being reversed and we recognise there is much more to be done.” during the same period.

www.polfed.org/westmids federation December 2021/January 2022 11