§ Mr. Cordleasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if, in order to improve the morale of the police service and to encourage recruitment thereto, he will publicly declare his commitment to ensuring that pay and conditions of service for police officers will 524W be carefully reviewed with a view to there being a generous award made to them in the next round of pay negotiations.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesIt would be premature to speculate on what will follow the end of the present round of pay policy in July this year, and in these circumstances no such commitment can be made.
§ Mr. Cordleasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if, in the light of the fact that civilian staff have been allowed a pay increase of up to £6, he will now take steps similarly to increase the pay of serving police officers.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesNo. The next settlement for the police must be in accordance with pay policy as it applied in the relevant review date—1st September 1976—which means a pay limit of 5 per cent. with a maximum of £4 and a minimum of £2.50 a week. During the previous phase of pay policy, when the ordinary limit was £6 a week, the police had a much greater increase, amounting to, in round terms, an average of 30 per cent.
§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department why he will not appoint an independent person to inquire into the dispute over police pay, as has been done in other cases in the past.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesThe present dispute over police pay turns on the interpretation of pay policy as announced in last year's White Paper (Cmnd. 6507). This is not a matter which lends itself to independent adjudication or arbitration.