Police top brass turn backs on bonuses amid cuts

Senior command team members at North Yorkshire Police and Humberside Police will forgo their cash incentives for the current financial year and use the money to bolster operations on the front line.

The move was agreed as Government Ministers prepare to unveil the true scale of the cash crisis facing UK policing, with Yorkshire forces widely expected to be among the worst hit.

Spending cuts will heap more pressure on commanders at a time when Yorkshire already has the fastest-shrinking police service in the country, having shed almost 600 officers in only two years.

North Yorkshire Chief Constable Grahame Maxwell has waived his bonus this year, as have his deputy Adam Briggs, chief finance officer Joanna Carter and the chief executive of North Yorkshire Police Authority, Jeremy Holderness.

In a report to councillors, Mr Holderness revealed that the police authority revenue budget for 2010-11 had included 52,000 for chief officer bonuses.

He said the bonuses to which Mr Maxwell, Mr Briggs and Ms Carter were entitled had totalled 44,500, but this amount would instead be transferred to the force's budget to pay for frontline policing.

The remaining 7,500 – Mr Holderness's own bonus entitlement – will remain in the police authority budget to be reallocated when needed.

Humberside Chief Constable Tim Hollis said: "I have been the chief constable here for five and a half years and have taken a force which was in dire straits back to where it belongs.

"But I do not believe in bonuses and I have never taken a bonus during my time with Humberside Police. In fact, no chief officer at Humberside has benefited from a bonus since I arrived.

"I do an honest day's work and I receive an honest day's pay. I do not hold back a percentage of my effort in the knowledge that I will get a bonus if I work harder.

"There is a bonus scheme to which we are eligible, but we do not seek to use it because we do not believe in the system."

It remains unclear whether the region's two largest forces, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire, will follow North Yorkshire and Humberside in waiving bonuses for senior officers.

Although West Yorkshire's top brass surrendered their bonuses in 2009-10, a decision on 2010-11 payments is unlikely to be made before the new year. A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police Authority said: "Five command team members were entitled to bonus payments in 2009-10. All agreed to forgo these payments, which would in total have cost between 30,000 and 86,000."

A South Yorkshire Police spokeswoman said: "So-called bonuses are a nationally agreed component of pay and conditions for a number of officers. Any change to arrangements needs to be negotiated and agreed."

Police forces are under pressure to cut costs after the coalition Government announced the policing budget would be slashed by 20 per cent in real terms by 2014-15.

Provisional funding settlements for each force will be announced by ministers next month, with Yorkshire forces expected to suffer more than southern constabularies because Government grants make up a greater proportion of their income.

Yorkshire's chief constables will then decide whether to have a single vehicle fleet covering the entire region and one department to buy equipment for all four forces. They will also consider regionalising scientific support, the forensic officers and scenes-of-crime investigators who assist detectives.