Police pay cuts ‘risk return to the bad old days’

Yorkshire’s police service will return to the high crime rates and low morale seen in the 1970s, officers have warned after the Government was advised to cut pay for some constables by up to £4,000 a year.

At least two in five of the region’s officers would be worse off under proposals outlined in the most radical police pay review for 30 years, which could shave £485m from the wage bill in England and Wales.

The report’s author, former rail regulator Tom Winsor, said police were “paid perhaps the best they have ever been” and typically received salaries 10 to 15 per cent higher than other public servants.

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He found that male officers in Yorkshire typically earned about 40 per cent more than the average pay for a worker in the region.

But rank-and-file officers said they were “soft targets” because they were banned from going on strike. They are considering a legal challenge and may hold a protest march through London before the Royal wedding.

The recommendations deliver a further blow to morale at Yorkshire’s four forces, which are preparing to shed more than 2,000 posts next year as they begin the task of overcoming a £200m budget shortfall by 2015.

More pain could arrive tomorrow when Lord Hutton’s review of public-sector pensions is likely to call for greater contributions from police.

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A key Winsor proposal, to save £60m a year by cutting overtime payments, will be felt acutely in South Yorkshire, where almost six per cent of the force’s officer wage bill last year – £9.2m – was given to those who worked between shifts. Five per cent of the North Yorkshire Police pay bill (£4m) went on overtime, compared with 4.6 per cent for Humberside (£5.6m) and 4.3 per cent for West Yorkshire (£12.5m).

South Yorkshire officer Julie Nesbit, who chairs the Police Federation’s constables’ central committee, said: “If we had sufficient officers in South Yorkshire, the overtime bill wouldn’t be anywhere near what it is. We know that in previous recessions crime has risen and this one has been no different. The problem is that there will be fewer officers about to deal with it.”

Humberside Police Federation chairman Steve Garmston said: “The effect on morale and flexibility is going to be significant and workloads are going to increase, creating more opportunity for criminals to proliferate because officers aren’t going to be there to prevent it.

“I fear we are moving back to the 1970s where the calibre of recruits and the attractiveness of being a police officer was compromised, and if that is the case the public will suffer.”

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Mr Winsor said two controversial top-up payment schemes for officers should be scrapped, but police working night shifts should be given an extra 10 per cent of their hourly pay and a new allowance of £1,200 should be introduced for most detectives, firearms, public order and neighbourhood policing teams.

North Yorkshire Police Federation chairman Mark Botham said: “Certain parts of this report read like Marie Antoinette. While allowances for federated ranks are to be scrapped, allowances for superintendents and above will be only frozen, first-class travel will remain and chief officers’ relocation expenses, including all tax liabilities, will be paid.

“Police officers are used to being attacked but usually by criminals. They don’t expect the biggest blow to come from the Government.”

The final decision on police pay rests with Home Secretary Theresa May, who said: “This isn’t just about money. It’s about reform of our police service.”

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Blair Gibbs, of the think tank Policy Exchange, said the review was “long overdue”.

SPOTLIGHT TURNS TO CHIEFS’ EXPENSES

Chief officers should publish all expense claims of more than £50 and give details of every first-class train journey they make, the report recommends.

But Tom Winsor stopped short of asking chief constables and their deputies to take a cut in basic pay.

West Yorkshire Chief Constable Sir Norman Bettison received the highest salary in the region last year (£169,359), followed by South Yorkshire chief Meredydd Hughes (£148,194), Humberside chief Tim Hollis (£139,119) and North Yorkshire chief Grahame Maxwell (£133,068).

Pay for the region’s deputy chief constables ranged from £109,782 to £135,489.