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Joe Grant
General Secretary
Letter from the Home Secretary to Chair of the Police Negotiating Board dated 08 January 2008
Dear John
I am writing to set out my approach to the police officer pay award for 2008 and beyond. I fully recognise the views and responses of PNB members to my decision on the 2007 police officer settlement but I would like to now focus on how we consider and progress discussions on future police officer pay settlements.
2007 was a challenging year for public sector pay and the police service was no exception to this. Then as now pay awards needed to reflect government policy on public sector pay and for police officers in 2007, I needed to take into account this policy and affordability considerations.
As you will be aware the Chancellor has today set out our objectives on public sector pay for future years and I thought it would be helpful if I explained at an early stage how I see the implications of this for the police so that we can all as parties in the police officer negotiating machinery reflect on these in our discussions on the 2008 pay round.
I am clear that if at all possible we should avoid in 2008 the lengthy period of uncertainty we had last year. There were understandable reasons for this but it is not ideal that in practice the process could only deliver an outcome just before Christmas – which meant that police officers could not get their pay until this month. The Chancellor's statement today sent a strong message that multi-year pay settlements are the right way forward for the public sector. I very much agree with this. They bring greater certainty, allow people to plan and budget better, and free up time for government and the service to focus on delivery.
I am therefore keen to begin to explore now, through the PNB, whether there is a possibility of reaching an agreement on this basis. I would like the PNB to consider the possibility of a multi-year deal. I see the index recommended by the Police Arbitration Tribunal as a very good basis for determining the pay rise for each of the years in question.
If it is the view of the PNB that such an agreement would be possible and real progress can be made on this I believe that these future settlements could be implemented in full. I know that the next quarterly meeting of the PNB will take place on 6 February and I should be grateful if you were able to give initial consideration the issues set out in this letter at that meeting and report your conclusions to me.
I hope this early indication of my thinking is helpful. I am copying this letter to the Staff and Official Side Chairs and Secretaries and to Bob and Ken Jones.
Jacqui Smith
Home Secretary
SPF RESPONSE TO HOME SECRETARY'S LETTER OF 8 JANUARY 2008 TO CHAIR OF THE POLICE NEGOTIATING BOARD ON HER APPROACH TO POLICE OFFICER PAY AWARD FOR 2008 AND BEYOND.
• We do not accept her decision on police pay for 2007.
• We do not accept her intention to replace the PNB with a pay review body.
• We do not accept her desire for a multi-year pay deal.
• We do not accept that the index recommended by the Police Arbitration Tribunal is appropriate for future pay settlements.
• We do no accept her ‘belief' that future settlements could (sic) be implemented in full.
• We demand a negotiating mechanism which compensates for our employment conditions, which is fair and is seen by our members to be fair.
• We demand a fair pay uprating index.
• We demand continued unfettered access to independent arbitration.
• We demand that agreements of the negotiating body and arbitration awards be binding on Government.
• We demand resolution of the 2007 pay award for England and Wales and Northern Ireland
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