GOVERNMENT RELATIONS
POLICING IS IN CRISIS AND THE GOVERNMENT MUST STEP UP
Policing is facing a crisis around funding and pay. We look back at the history between the police and the Government and its similarities to today, and what needs to be done to fix these issues
Big Ben and the Parliament across the Westminister Bridge, taken in 1918 – photo unkown
Between 29 August 1918 and mid-1919 our country was thrown into disarray when more than 50,000 police officers, under the aegis of the National Union of Police and Prison Officers (NUPPO) resorted to strikes, after repeated calls for fair pay and work conditions fell on the deaf ears of the Government. A committee was formed under William Henry Grenfell, 1st Baron Desborough, KG, which confirmed the concerns of police officers. The Government of the day promised fair pay to police officers in return for giving up the right to partake in trade union activities and brought in the Police Act of 1919, killing NUPPO and establishing by law the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW). The subsequent Governments did not fully honour the promise of fair pay and did not adequately address concerns about the work conditions of police officers. Sustained lobbying by PFEW resulted in the Government announcing a Committee of Inquiry, headed by the Right Honourable Lord Edmund-Davies PC. In its July 1978 report to the Government,
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the Committee said: “The police cannot properly be compared to any other single group of workers.” It recommended a major revaluation of police pay – between 30 per cent to 45 per cent – while concluding that the police cannot be compared with any other group of public sector workers for the purpose of calculating pay because “the unique nature of the police service and the work they do, makes this impossible.” The Government remained noncommittal, and the next month
attaining power. It is important to recall these
milestones in the policing history of our country, because today the conditions are quite similar. Today, inflation is at a 40-year high
“The police cannot properly be compared to any other single group of workers.”
more than 50,000 police officers decided to initiate industrial action. The Government declared it would implement 50 per cent of the Committee’s recommendations while the opposition made a manifesto commitment to implement full recommendations.
The Government of the day lost the election of 1979, and the opposition honoured its commitment after
and more than 139,000 police officers in England and Wales have received a pay award that by no means matches the cost of inflation. Not to forget the 20 per cent real term pay cut they have withstood for 12 years. The cost-of-living crisis has made matters worse, where some officers are seeking the help of food vouchers and others are struggling to afford to put fuel in their cars.
It is surreal that Britain’s shortest-
serving Cabinet minister is in line for a £17,000 (£485.71 per hour) pay out after remaining on the job for mere 35 hours and Members of Parliament got a pay rise higher than what was offered to the workers of our fire services. All that police officers want is fair pay.
Pay that recognises their unique place in society for the dangers they face as they go about their duties fighting and
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