§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the(a) hourly wage for a newly qualified police officer, (b) the average hourly wage for serving police officers and (c) the hourly wage of newly qualified police officers for overtime work are; and how much money was spent by police forces in employing police officers on overtime in each of the last three years. [135868]
§ Ms BlearsThe information is as follows.
(a) Police officers are not paid an hourly wage, instead they receive an annual salary. Upon completion of initial training, an officer will receive £21,462 per year.
579W(b) Figures are not available for the average hourly wage for serving police officers. The average length of service for constables is 11 years. A constable with 11 years service receives £29,589 per year.
The figures do not include any regional allowances which may be payable.
(c) Overtime is payable at the rate of one twenty-fourth of a day's pay for each completed period of 15 minutes of overtime worked.
Figures for the amount spent on overtime in the police service are currently only available centrally for 2001–02 with a total United Kingdom spend of £400,392,000. This was made up of £319,620,000 for England and Wales, £26,097,000 for Scotland and £54,675,000 for Northern Ireland.
Details of overtime payments for other years have not been aggregated.