§ Sir Nicholas WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the proposal to remove the plain clothes allowance to CID officers; and whether he intends to introduce measures requiring police officers to contribute payments towards the cost of their uniforms. [30114]
§ Mr. DenhamThe Police Negotiating Board (PNB) reached agreement on 9 May 2002 on a package of modernising reforms to police pay and conditions of service. The PNB is the statutory negotiating body for police pay and conditions of service, on which all the main police organisations are represented, including the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Association of Police Authorities, the Superintendents' Association and the Police Federation.
One of the reforms agreed is to reduce the plain clothes allowance on 1 April 2003 to half its current rate of £258 and then to abolish it altogether on 1 April 2004. That change has to be seen in the context of all the changes, which include an increase in the basic salary for all federated ranks' officers of £402 a year from 1 April 2003 and a shortening of the federated ranks' pay scales, resulting in faster progression to the top of the scales. Once they have spent a year at the top of the scales, federated ranks officers will be eligible for a new competence-related payment of £1,002 a year, with at least 75 per cent. of those eligible expected to get the payment. In addition, under a new special priority payment scheme to target extra pay at those officers at the sharp end of policing, officers in qualifying posts will receive annual payments of between £500 and £3,000 normally, up to £5,000 exceptionally.
The PNB Agreement does not require officers to contribute to the cost of their uniforms.