vallierojas: Theresa May warns police of pay cuts

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Theresa May warns police of pay cuts

Home secretary points to budget deficit ahead of review expected to recommend radical pay and conditions overhaul

The home secretary, Theresa May, has set the stage for a potential spending cuts clash with the police, telling them cuts in their pay and conditions are an unavoidable alternative to thousands more police job losses.

She told the 140,000-strong police service in England and Wales the "extraordinary circumstances" generated by the record budget deficit meant she was unable to exempt officers from cuts in their pay and conditions.

Like the rest of the public sector, the police already face a two-year pay freeze that will save �350m. But an independent review by the former rail regulator Tom Winsor, due next Tuesday, is expected to recommend a radical overhaul in police pay and conditions.

The Police Federation, which represents rank and file constables, is due to meet the police minister, Nick Herbert, later to discuss possible changes to the police pension scheme.

Reacting in a tweet to May's speech, and to claims in the Sun of "Spanish practices" and "potty police perks", the federation's chairman, Paul McKeever, said: "Spanish practices at the Home Office? Theresa May announces changes to police pay BEFORE the independent report is published."

The home secretary told a Home Office conference in Westminster, however: "No home secretary wants to cut police officers' pay packages. But with a record budget deficit, these are extraordinary circumstances. We are doing everything we can to minimise the effect of the spending reductions on pay.

"But up and down the country, police officers and staff I speak to ? as well as ordinary members of the public ? say they would prefer us to look at pay and conditions rather than lose thousands of posts."

Overtime payments, housing and travel allowances and shift patterns are expected to face sharp reductions and radical reform as a result of the Winsor review.

The move sets up a potential head-on clash with the police over spending cuts, which no government can relish. A simple refusal to backdate a police pay rise by Jacqui Smith, when she was home secretary, led to thousands of officers marching on Westminster to demand her resignation.

May, who is introducing her own ambitious programme of police reform, including elected police commissioners, hopes to be more successful.

She said the Winsor review would be the most comprehensive look at police pay and conditions for 30 years: "I want his recommendations to enable modern management practices to be implemented, help the service to manage their budgets, maximise officer and staff deployment to frontline roles and enable frontline services to be maintained and improved," she said.

"The review's conclusions must be fair, and they must be seen to be fair. Police officers cannot strike ? and that is not going to change. I have emphasised today just how dangerous and difficult their job is. Police officers should be rewarded fairly and reasonably for what they do.

"But the police leadership need to have the flexibility to manage their forces and protect the frontline. And now, more than ever, the taxpayer needs to get a fair deal from all parts of the public sector."

She said she would not see the Winsor review until it was published, but promised to study its recommendations carefully. "They [the recommendations] will also be subject to consideration by the police negotiating bodies," she said. "But I must be clear: to make savings in any organisation where pay packages are the biggest cost, we have to look at pay."