NEWS


PFEW pension compensation – what happens next?


The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) pension compensation claim has moved to the next stage of the process following the passing of the deadline for applications on 31 July 2020. Over 40,000 members


have signed up for the claim, which is being made by PFEW on behalf of those who were victims of discrimination and may have sufered ‘injury to feeling’ as a result of the transitional provisions of the 2015 scheme. PFEW staf are


currently sifting through all the applications to remove duplicates and ensure members’ datasets are correctly completed, before the data is handed to our lawyers. The lawyers will carry


out their own checks and then ACAS notifications will be made on behalf of those eligible members. In due course, claims in the Employment Tribunal will be submitted. The Government has


already conceded its approach to transitional arrangements was unlawful and has committed to rectifying the situation. Assuming the Government does in fact make good this promise, the Tribunal will be asked by PFEW’s lawyers to consider whether compensation should be awarded to claimants for injury to feelings. PFEW’s National


Secretary Alex Duncan said the court could group together members’ claims with the similar claim lodged by lawyers Leigh Day on behalf of 13,000 ofcers. Mr Duncan said: “It


will be down to the court as to how it wants to manage two similar claims, and the Tribunal may seek to


streamline the process and join PFEW’s claims with existing claims. “However, those claims


are more advanced in the claim process and so that may not be feasible. PFEW lawyers may advise it is desirable to stay members’ claims until more is known about the current ongoing claims. “It is probable a small


number of representative sample cases will be agreed. These could involve, for instance, an individual with an ill-health pension-related claim, or those with distinctive circumstances which similarly apply to other claimants. “These individual random


sample cases would then be put together in ‘groups’ by combining claimants who have similar personal circumstances. “The Tribunal would


then make a separate ruling related to each sample case and could then award separate sums to compensate those in each ‘group’. If the claim was successful, the rate of any individual compensation would be determined by which ‘group’ a claimant was allocated.” The Group Action is


being handled on PFEW’s behalf by the leading UK and international law firm Penningtons Manches Cooper. It will provide general updates through an Extranet site, and applicants will be invited to sign up to this in due course. Applicants are being


asked not to contact the law firm with enquiries about the claim, and instead to speak directly with branch secretaries. Members should also check junk mail folders via their personal email address if they think they have not had a response to their application.


06 | POLICE | SEPTEMBER 2020


Multi-year funding settlement needed to rescue policing


The Government must consider multi-year funding deals, akin to the NHS, if it is to reverse years of damaging cuts, says the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) – echoing the Chief Inspector of Constabulary’s calls. Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector


of Constabulary Sir Thomas Winsor (above) published his annual assessment of policing in England and Wales in July. The report highlighted “serious


weaknesses” in the provision for mental health services and says levels of service don’t always meet public expectations as ofcers struggle with demand. Sir Tom also pressed the need


for an end to one-year financial settlements, suggesting rolling three- year programmes, adjusted each year, which would be an “enormous aid to strategic planning”. PFEW National Chair John


Apter said: “Our incredible ofcers


are doing an increasingly difcult job with fewer resources, from policing a pandemic to picking up the pieces of an underfunded mental health service. Boom-and-bust recruitment, short- term, one-year financial settlements do not work, and forces shouldn’t have to operate on a ‘hand-to-mouth’ basis. Over the last decade the police service has been hit hard by budget cuts and it needs more than a one-year cash injection to put things right.” The report added that demand


is outstripping supply and that the 20,000-ofcer uplift programme that the Federation welcomes but which requires 54,000 people to be recruited and trained over the three-year period, will not close this gap. At the end of March 2019, there


were 20,564 fewer police ofcers and 15,185 fewer police staf than at the same point in 2010, while the population of England and Wales has grown from 55.7 million to 59.4 million during this period.


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