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One per cent bonus will not lead to job losses, says PCC

Chief constable thanks PCC for working to ensure money to fund increase is found without the need for reduction in numbers.
Published - 11/10/2017 By - Sophie Garrod - Police Oracle

Police officers will not lose their jobs in Cleveland to pay for the government’s unfunded pay award.

Cleveland PCC Barry Coppinger has criticised the government for effectively cutting his force's budget to fund the one per cent bonus for officers.

Mr Coppinger believes police officers and staff should have been awarded a centrally funded pay rise which better reflected the job they do and has written to Prime Minister Theresa May urging her to reconsider what is in effect a cut to police budgets.

But he vowed to pay for the bonus by tightening his spending and using the force's reserves.

He said: “It appears the government is not providing the funding for this one-off bonus, which in Cleveland is likely to mean a £500,000 cut to our available budget over the next year. Instead of robbing Peter to pay Paul, the government should recognise the incredible job that police officers and police staff do and fund a realistic pay rise."

Chief Constable Iain Spittal said: “When the PCC and I met with the Policing and Fire Minister earlier in the year, we both stressed the point that police officers and staff have experienced real term reductions in their salaries over the past seven years and that we wanted to be able to pay them more for the very important role that they undertake.

“Police officers do a very difficult role and provide a huge contribution within local communities. However, we also made sure that we stressed that any increase beyond the budgeted one per cent needed to come with additional money. 

“Although we both welcome any move to properly reflect the work of officers and staff through fair pay, we were both equally disappointed when no additional money was made available. I would like to thank the PCC for working to ensure that the money to fund the increase is found without the need for job losses.”

Last month at the PSAEW conference Policing Minister Nick Hurd hinted he would make forces spend their reserves, but Nottinghamshire’s Labour PCC Paddy Tipping has told him reserves have come down by half already and will not be enough.

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