Police Modernisation 2002 - POLICE PAY AND CONDITIONS

1 STATUS
1.1 This package has been negotiated by the Official and Staff Sides of the Police Negotiating Board, having regard to the Home Secretary's Outcomes Paper of 24 October 2001.

1.2 This agreement is subject to the proviso that sufficient new money is available to all police authorities, including in Scotland and Northern Ireland, to cover the net costs of this package.

1.3 It is recognised that certain items in this agreement (sections 4, 6, 7 and 8) also need to be referred to the relevant PABs. The appropriate constituent parts of the Sides agree to pursue these expeditiously within timetables to be agreed and to a successful conclusion within these bodies, in accordance with the principles set out in the relevant sections of this agreement.

1.4 This document is structured in accordance with the Home Secretary's Outcomes Paper of 24 October 2001.

2 INCREASING THE REWARDS AVAILABLE TO EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONAL OFFICERS
2.1 Each member of the federated ranks will have access to a competencerelated threshold payment of £1,002 a year (pensionable) once they have served for a year at the maximum of their pay scale, and subject to satisfying the requirements of the scheme. It is anticipated that at least 75% of those eligible will be successful in accessing the threshold payment.

2.2 The outlines of the threshold scheme are at APPENDIX A. The Federated Ranks Committee will agree the details, including guidance for forces, by 30 September 2002, with a view to the first payments being made from 1 April 2003.

2.3 The pay scales for the federated ranks will be shortened as in APPENDIX B, subject to a minimum increase of £402 per point, with effect from 1 April 2003.

2.4 These pay scales will, as at present, be uprated on 1 September annually in line with the agreed pay indexation arrangements.

3 ACHIEVING GREATER FLEXIBILITY AND TARGETED REWARDS IN THE PAY SYSTEM
3.1 A scheme for Special Priority Payments will operate in each force, as at APPENDIX C. This scheme will be targeted on front line/operational officers in particular.

3.2 Payments under this scheme to individuals will not be less than £500 a year or more than £3,000 a year normally, although exceptionally, payments of up to £5,000 a year may be made. They will be taxable but not pensionable and will be paid as a single lump sum in December. For those officers who qualify, the first payments will be made in December 2003 and then annually each December thereafter. The PNB expects that no less than 20% of force strength will benefit from this scheme and no more than 30%, save in exceptional circumstances. The payments will be pro rata in the case of a postholder who has been in a qualifying post for less than the calendar year.

3.3 In the first year at least an additional 1% of the force's annual basic paybill for ranks below chief officers will be spent on this scheme; in the second year at least 1½% and in the third year, and thereafter, at least 2%. Funding will be provided centrally to meet these minimum costs.

3.4 A separate scheme for bonus payments of between £50 and £500 per head to recognise occasional work of an outstandingly unpleasant, demanding or important nature will be introduced from 1 April 2003, in accordance with the provisions of APPENDIX D. These payments will be taxable but not pensionable. Arrangements will be developed in local consultation with the staff associations.

4 ALLOWING MORE FLEXIBLE DEPLOYMENT OF OFFICERS AND MORE FLEXIBLE WORKING PATTERNS
4.1 The PNB agrees that the management of working time needs to respect both the work/life balance needs of police officers and the service's operational needs within the context of the Working Time Regulations.

4.2 The changes in this agreement make possible better and more flexible use of manpower in a number of ways, for example, annual rostering arrangements. Additionally, the service can look towards improvements from reducing bureaucracy, which often creates overtime commitments.

Recognising that the tactical and contingent uses of overtime are sometimes valuable and necessary, there is still room to manage down the total figure

against overtime commitments having little tactical or operational value. The increasing strength of the service in most of the United Kingdom also provides a good opportunity for improvements in the management of working time.

4.3 Accordingly, and in the light of all these considerations, there will be a service-wide target of a 15% reduction in the overall overtime bill over the three years starting 2003/4. The baseline will be set following consultation with the Audit Commission* .
* The overtime reductions of 15% and 10% mentioned in paragraphs 4.3 & 4.4 are total figures to be achieved over the 3 year period beginning 2003/4.

4.4 The service-wide target will be focused locally. Each police authority and chief constable will set its own force target, in consultation with the Inspectorate. Local targets will normally be at least 15% unless the police authority and chief constable can show, to the satisfaction of the Inspectorate, that they have taken effective action between 2000/01 and 2002/03 to reduce their overtime bill, in which case a target of 10% would be the norm, save in exceptional circumstances such as where a substantial reduction in the availability of operational resource means a lower target than 10% should be set (as in 4.6 below). Each force and police authority will set interim indicative targets in agreement with the Inspectorate. Police authorities and chief constables will also consult the local staff associations.

4.5 The increased strength of the police service will deliver increased officer operational availability. The scheme for managing down overtime will be complemented by the efficient and effective deployment of officers. The Inspectorate will, therefore, also track increased officer operational availability using the existing BVPI on measuring the percentage of police officers in operational posts and by any refinements to that indicator which more accurately reflect the availability of officers in serving the public. Thus, the Inspectorate will monitor both the increased availability of officers for frontline duties and the managing down of overtime.

4.6 The Inspectorate will monitor performance against interim targets, taking into account force strength, unforeseen major incidents and new requirements, as part of their regular reviews of forces' efficiency savings . Forces will be able to score good performance against the targets as part of their 2% efficiency savings.

4.7 From 2004/5, forces should be able to keep any savings achieved through meeting the interim targets. Retention of the savings would be dependent on achieving the improved visibility and availability as outlined above, which will allow opportunities for increasing establishment or other initiatives designed to generate greater visibility or availability. This will be monitored by the Inspectorate.

4.8 Detailed guidance to forces will be produced by a PNB working group by the end of October 2002. Guidance will also be issued to police authorities in respect of their scrutiny role. The service-wide target will be included in the national policing plan. Local targets will be included in local policing plans.

4.9 From 1 April 2003 the present eight day threshold for triggering the higher rate of compensation for working on a rostered rest day will be reduced to five days. The current fifteen day trigger point will not be changed.

4.10 The rules will be amended from 1 April 2003 so that the post-Sheehy "disregard" of casual overtime of up to half an hour up to four times a week applies to time-off as well as to paid overtime compensation.

4.11 Duty rosters covering at least 3 months will be drawn up and published locally by force management, after full consultation with the JBB. At the same time, PNB recognises that it is good practice to plan annual leave up to a year in advance, in the interests of both officers and managers.

4.12 The 16 hour a week minimum requirement for part-time working will be removed as soon as practicable; as will the requirement for job sharing in respect of middle and senior ranks.

4.13 The position of part time probationers will be given further consideration.

5 RATIONALISING THE SYSTEM OF ALLOWANCES
5.1 The following allowances will be maintained:

· Rent, housing and replacement allowances

· London weighting and London allowance

· South East allowances

· Dog handlers' allowances

· Motor vehicle allowances

· Allowance in respect of medical charges arising from injuries incurred on duty

· PSNI allowance. *
* The PSNI inspectors' non-pensionable supplement will be further considered when the Special Priority Payments scheme is introduced.

5.2 Plain clothes allowance will be halved from 1 April 2003 and discontinued from 1 April 2004.

5.3 Subsistence, refreshment and lodging allowances will be discontinued from 1 April 2003. Instead officers will be reimbursed expenditure incurred in the course of duty provided it is:

(a) necessary;

(b) reasonable;

(c) additional to what the officer would otherwise have incurred; and

(d) backed by a receipt.

5.4 Removal allowance will be discontinued from 1 April 2003. Instead officers who are required to move will be reimbursed for associated expenditure provided it is necessary, reasonable and backed by receipts.

5.5 Frozen undermanning allowances will be discontinued from 1 April 2003.

5.6 Firearms' users standby allowance and gratuity for fingerprinting and searching badly decomposed bodies will be discontinued from 1 April 2003. The first of these allowances will be eligible for payment under the Special Priority Payments scheme (see paragraph 3.1 - 3.3). Where the gratuity would have been paid, a bonus payment (paragraph 3.4) may be appropriate.

5.7 The recurring escort duty allowance will be discontinued from 1 April 2003. Instead those posts receiving this allowance will continue to be paid the same amount under Regulation 50 (and equivalent Regulations in Scotland and Northern Ireland).

6 SIMPLIFYING THE SYSTEM OF REGULATIONS AND DETERMINATIONS
6.1 APPENDIX E lists:

(a) those Regulations which it is agreed should be retained;

(b) those Regulations which it is agreed should be deleted;

(c) those Regulations which it is agreed should become legally enforceable Determinations by the Secretary of State, underpinned by sufficient safeguards in and linked to a substantive Regulation.

6.2 A working party of the PNB will agree during 2002 on the details of translating each existing regulation listed in Part (c) of Appendix E into a legally enforceable determination by the Secretary of State and an underpinning substantive regulation.

7 ENCOURAGING OFFICERS TO STAY ON BEYOND 30 YEARS
7.1 APPENDIX F outlines a scheme designed to encourage officers to continue in service beyond 30 years, subject to the agreement of both the individual and force management, in the context of a scheme authorised by the police authority. The scheme's objectives are as follows:

· to help ease possible recruitment shortfalls and help police numbers to rise to, and be sustained at, a higher level;

· to smooth out recruitment bulges and, by the same token, help to avoid corresponding retirement bulges in future;

· to help retain much needed skills and experience in the service.

7.2 Subject to Treasury approval, and detailed agreement between the Sides, the next step will be to set up a pilot scheme in at least one force as soon as possible in order to identify likely take-up and to establish the business case for rolling the scheme out across the UK from April 2003 onwards.

8 IMPROVING THE MANAGEMENT OF ILL-HEALTH
8.1 The key objectives in the management of ill-health are:

· to ensure that personnel practices in forces and the pensions regulations combine to ensure that fair and effective decisions are taken on poor attendance and ill-health retirements;

· to ensure that, where possible, police officers are rehabilitated for duty rather than retired on ill-health grounds;

· to ensure that there is greater consistency in decision making practice between forces.

8.2 APPENDIX G sets out agreed principles to achieve these objectives. A working party of the PNB will agree during 2002 detailed amendments and additions to regulations and guidance that reflect these principles.

8.3 The PNB notes the possibility of the need to review injury awards should the current government review of such awards in the public sector make recommendations for change.

9 CONCLUSION
9.1 This package was agreed at the Police Negotiating Board on 9 May 2002, and is now submitted as a formal recommendation to the Home Secretary, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and to Scottish Ministers.