Statement by Joint Central Committees of the Police Federations representing England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

20 November 2007

JCC CHALLENGE HOME OFFICE ON POLICE PAY

The JCC which represent 170,000 police officers in the UK today voiced its concern that the Home Office will fail to honour the findings of the current pay arbitration due to be published in the next few days. The concern was expressed at their annual meeting held today in Belfast.

The 90 delegates from throughout the UK expressed continued frustration of having to resort to arbitration to receive a fair and transparent pay award.

JCC also indicated a lack of confidence in the Home Office's willingness to accept the outcome of arbitration and instead believe that Government is shamefully hedging its bets. The failure to indicate that they will accept the outcome is in marked contrast to the good faith in which the Federations have entered into negotiation and arbitration.

JCC challenged the Home Office to signal their intentions now in advance of the arbitration findings.

Each of the Federations is writing to their respective Secretary of State and members have been raising the issue locally with their MPs to encourage them to support the arbitration finding in the run up to the decision.