15 January 2013
Last updated at 15:31 GMT
Ex police minister Nick Herbert said it meant new officers would be paid for their skills, rather than their length of service
The
starting salary for police constables in England and Wales is being cut
by £4,000 to £19,000, the home secretary has confirmed.
Theresa May has accepted recommendations on reform made by the Police Arbitration Tribunal.
It follows proposals put forward last year in a review for an overhaul of police pay, conditions and allowances.
The Police Federation says it is "disappointed" by the announcement.
The
Scottish Ministry of Justice tweeted: "Home Office cuts to police starting salaries will not be imposed in Scotland."
Ex-rail regulator Tom Winsor, the review's author, was
appointed last year as the Chief Inspector of Constabulary for England
and Wales, the first non-policeman named to the post.
He recommended £1bn could be cut from police pay.
Mrs May has deferred plans to allow forces to make officers redundant to allow for further negotiation.
The BBC's home affairs correspondent Tom Symonds said the
starting salary would be £19,000 for recruits with no policing
experience but £22,000 for more experienced officers, such as those who
had worked as special constables or PCSOs.
Continue reading the main story
Tom Winsor's review of police pay concluded there should be a
lower starting salary for some new officers. So while there has been a
£4,000 cut for recruits with no experience, such as those coming
straight from school at 18, older recruits with relevant experience,
such as a period as a special constable, will start to earn £22,000 a
year.
But the deal also means that many constables will have the
opportunity to move to the top of the pay scale more quickly, currently
around £36,000.
Tom Winsor's review aimed to ensure police officers would be paid for their skills, rather than time served.
Proposals to allow chiefs to make constables redundant remain
under discussion. Supporters say it would help them get rid of dead
wood. Critics say it would threaten the independence of constables.
He said the proposals also cut
the number of pay scales from 10 to 7, meaning officers could reach the
higher pay grade of £36,000 more quickly.
Under the PAT proposals police in London get extra payments
of £6,615 a year and those in the south east of England up to £2,000
because of higher living costs.
Mrs May said: "These reforms build on the changes we implemented [in January last year].
'Modernise pay'
"They continue our programme to modernise... pay and
conditions so that they are fair to both officers and the taxpayer. They
include measures to re-target pay to reward contribution, increase
local flexibility and make important structural changes to enable
further reform."
Labour's shadow policing minister, David Hanson, said: "There
is a real worry that the proposed starting salary for all police
officers will damage the ability of police forces to recruit officers of
the right skills and experience and directly contradicts the
government's own wish to limit recruitment to those with three A-levels
and recruit professional people from outside the police."
The chairman of the Police Federation in England and Wales,
Steve Williams, said: "Whilst we remain disappointed with some of the
PAT's recommendations we acknowledge that the home secretary has
honoured the process of the Police Negotiating Board.
"We will continue to engage fully on behalf of our members."
But Keith Vaz MP, chairman of the Home Affairs Select
Committee, said morale in the police force was at "an all-time low" and
added: "This is the wrong time to cut the pay of ordinary police
officers."
The Association of Chief Police Officers' (Acpo) lead on
workforce development, chief constable Peter Fahy, said: "In a service
where over 80% of budget is spent on people, it is more vital than ever
that we have terms and conditions for all staff that both reward them
for what they do and represent value for money.
"Officers can also reach the top rate of pay three years earlier than under the current arrangements."
At the weekend the BBC reported how the number of young
police officers in England and Wales had fallen by nearly 50% in two
years.
Overall police numbers hit a nine-year low in 2012, due to tighter budget constraints slowing recruitment.
Currently sworn police officers are servants of the Crown, not employees, so they cannot be made redundant.
The salary changes were originally recommended by former rail regulator Tom Winsor
But some forces have been using a regulation known as A19 to make officers with 30 years experience or more retire early.
The Winsor Report recommended allowing forces to make any police officer redundant, not just those with 30 years experience.
Scotland's Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said the
Scottish government did not commission the Winsor review and he said:
"We will not impose changes to the terms and conditions of our
hard-working, dedicated officers. Starting salaries for our police
constables in Scotland will stay the same."
"The police service in Scotland will not be privatised, we
will safeguard officer numbers, we will not implement the Winsor package
north of the border."
COPY http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
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