Local Update

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Good morning.

I start by offering my own words of thanks and respect to

everyone who has received a Bravery Award this year.

The Awards are a fitting tribute – and they do credit not

just to the courage of individual officers, but also to the

achievements of their colleagues, and to the reputation of

policing as a whole in England and Wales.

Last week, we saw further evidence – if any was needed –

of your bravery and dedication, as officers in Manchester

dealt superbly with the disturbances caused by a small but

dangerous minority of thugs.

Those pictures showed vividly the pressures you can

come under. More than that, they demonstrated the

composure and determination that you show when called

upon to protect the public.

Jan – this year, as every year, we remember the officers

who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty.

Constable Jonathan Henry.

Constable Andrew Graham Gough.

Constable Katie Louise Mitchell.

Constable Ian David Walker.

Constable Christopher Roberts.

Constable Christopher Hart.

Sergeant Robert Walsham.

Sergeant Noel McCarthy.

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And as we remember fallen colleagues, so we should not

forget the families they leave behind. The officer who was

also a mother or a father, a wife or husband, a daughter or

a son.

That’s why, this summer, I will set out proposals to review

the system of police injury awards.

And those proposals will include a major change.

In the future, the pensions of the surviving partners of

officers killed in the line of duty should be payable for life,

regardless of whether they go on to remarry.

That change is a key part of a package of support for

surviving partners that I want the Police Negotiating Board

to agree by the end of this year.

And at the same time, I want to do more for existing

survivors who have already lost their partner in the line of

duty.

At the moment, the pension they receive is withdrawn if

they remarry.

I recognise that this can cause hardship, and so to

alleviate the problem I intend to give police authorities the

discretionary power to make one-off lump sum payments

to help existing survivors who have remarried or may

remarry.

I will work with the Police Federation and other members

of the Police Negotiating Board on the details of the

scheme, but I envisage this lump sum payment to be

sizeable in most cases.

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Jan, some strong words have been used in the past year.

I know they haven’t been used lightly.

And today I want to talk to you all directly – face-to-face –

about some of the important decisions I’ve had to make

this year, but also about some of the key objectives that I

know we share.

And so that we can have as full a discussion as possible

this morning, I want to leave plenty of time for the Q&A

session after my remarks.

Four months ago, almost to the day, 25,000 of you

marched through London. Many of you here were on that

march, and I met some of you on that day.

Then, as now, I am in no doubt of the strength of feeling

on this subject. Then, as now, I stand by my decision.

We all know the arguments. I know you strongly disagree

with the decision.

But it was one that I took only after a lot of thought – after

considering the full facts of the case. The need to keep

mortgages and the cost of living under control – and that

includes your mortgages and your families’ cost of living

as well.

And there was another crucial factor at play. Affordability

– and for that read police officer numbers. I needed to

ensure that you continued to have your colleagues

working alongside you – all your colleagues.

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At a time when families are feeling the pinch, I know how

important it is to restore stability and confidence into

discussions on your pay.

That’s why we’ve opened discussions on a multi-year pay

deal for the future. 2007 may be unfinished business for

some, but it’s clear that we need to get cracking if we want

to reach an early settlement that gives you and your

families the stability and confidence to plan for the future.

I know that this needs to be a two-way street. So if we can

agree a long-term deal based on the Arbitration Tribunal

index, I will implement that in full.

But let’s be under no illusions. Setting out on the road to

the right to strike will lead only to a dead-end.

The issue of officer benefits goes much more widely than

pay. It’s also, of course, about your pension

arrangements.

I’ve already mentioned the additional package for

surviving partners. I now want to turn to improvements for

officers themselves.

First, I am announcing today new commutation factors for

calculating retirement lump sums under the Police

Pension Scheme 1987. These new factors – which are the

same for both men and women – should be implemented

in forces from 1 July this year. And they will be back-dated

to 1 October last year.

This will increase the lump sum payable to all officers who

retire under the ‘old’ police pension scheme, or who

retired with a lump sum under the old pension scheme on

or after 1 October 2007.

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To give you an idea of what this could mean for different

officers in different circumstances:

• a 50-year old male constable on the top of the pay

scale and with CRTP threshold payments who retires

after 30 years and commutes the maximum will get a

lump sum of just over £109,000 – almost £23,000 more

than under the old factors.

scale and with CRTP threshold payments who retires

after 30 years and commutes the maximum will get a

lump sum of just over £109,000 – almost £23,000 more

than under the old factors.

scale and with CRTP threshold payments who retires

after 30 years and commutes the maximum will get a

lump sum of just over £109,000 – almost £23,000 more

than under the old factors.

• a 52-year old male sergeant in similar circumstances

will get a lump sum of just under £120,000 – almost

£24,000 more.

will get a lump sum of just under £120,000 – almost

£24,000 more.

will get a lump sum of just under £120,000 – almost

£24,000 more.

• a 55-year old female inspector in similar circumstances

will get a lump sum of just over £142,000 – about

£14,000 more.

will get a lump sum of just over £142,000 – about

£14,000 more.

will get a lump sum of just over £142,000 – about

£14,000 more.

We live in a changing world. And just as it is right and fair

that we improve your pension arrangements and injury

awards in order to meet the needs of modern day officers

and their families, so too is it important to understand how

policing is changing to meet the challenges of today’s

world – and tomorrow’s.

With neighbourhood policing, with 24/7 response, with CID

and protective services, with intelligence activity to counter

the threat of organised crime and terrorism – whatever

your specialism, each and every day, I understand, police

officers are protecting our streets and our communities,

upholding society’s laws and ensuring respect for these

laws.

All of these activities are vital to our well-being as a

country.

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And the responsibility we ask you to shoulder on our

behalf is a great one, matched only by the faith that

communities place in you to lead the fight against crime.

We all know that people’s expectations of the police grow

ever greater. And no-one understands what it takes to

meet these expectations better than you.

Day in and day out, you are on the front line dealing with

the changing face of crime and the increasing demands

this makes of you.

Jan, you’ve made a powerful case for the Office of

Constable this morning.

You’re right to assert its centrality to the proud history of

policing in this country. It is the bedrock on which so

many of your achievements are based.

For the best part of two hundred years, the story of the

Office of Constable has been the story of policing in this

country. Long may that last.

When I publish the Green Paper on policing next month,

my cast-iron commitment to the Office of Constable will be

set out for all to see. Right from the first page.

The principles that make British policing the envy of the

world have not altered.

But it is a fact of history and a fact of life that the

procedures, skills, tools and partners you work with to put

these principles into practice have changed dramatically

since the early years of the 19th century.

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Rather than see changes in workforce practices – the

introduction of community support officers and the greater

use of staff – as a threat to warranted officers, there will

always be a distinct role for holders of the Office of

Constable that sets them apart from the rest.

Only they – only you – should have the wide-ranging

coercive powers that can be applied in the community at

large.

Only you have a duty to obey lawful orders and exercise

professional discretion – an essential safeguard for the

public. And only you have a duty to exercise your powers

whenever they are needed, off-duty as well as on.

But there is more scope for you to be supported – not

supplanted, not sidelined – in the roles that you, and only

you, can play.

I know that building new relationships and getting used to

new ways of working can be difficult.

But I have to say my own view is that the introduction of

PCSOs has been welcomed by the public – and that

public support for PCSOs is an expression of public

support for policing as a whole. It reflects well on you - as

well as policing in general.

Some of you have fears that the trend is towards officers

only dealing with confrontational situations and serious

crime. I hear those concerns – and I firmly believe they

should have no place in the future of policing.

Across the breadth and range of your specialisms, it is the

experience and leadership that you as officers provide that

makes you so valued.

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It is your status – and the personal and professional

qualities you bring to the job – that set you apart within the

policing family, as together you work to protect the public.

Not only to make our country safer, but to make everyone

in our communities feel safer as well.

People have high expectations of you. To meet them,

you’ve got to have the skills, the tools and the space you

need to do your job.

Last September – in this very hall – the Prime Minister

announced a £50m capital fund for more than 10,000

handheld computers, so that officers can log crimes from

the spot, and stay out on the beat and out of the station.

In the very near future we will announce how that money

will be allocated to forces.

Such was the appetite that the fund was heavily

oversubscribed. And so we will now go further and

develop a second phase of the fund.

Officers need to be protected in the course of their duties

and our trials to extend Tasers are showing real benefits –

like the report in last week’s Police Review of a 40% drop

in officers’ days off, due to fewer assaults and injures, in

the Northumbria trials.

If the trials show the value of Taser for protecting officers

and protecting the public, I see no reason why they should

not be issued routinely to all police officers.

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The skills and tools for the job are one thing – but what

about the things that get in the way of you doing your job

in the first place?

The last thing you want is more fine words about cutting

red tape. You want action.

Sir Ronnie Flanagan’s report gave us a plan and timetable

for meaningful action that will make a practical difference

to every officer on the street.

I agree with Sir Ronnie that ACPO and the NPIA, working

with frontline officers, should standardise the most

common processes and the forms associated with them

so that they are streamlined across all forces.

In the next few months, we will scrap the stop and account

form. We will cut the amount of information you have to

record on most incidents. And I want to see action taken in

quick order to cut practices where officers have to key

details in more than once.

For our part, the Home Office will reduce the amount of

data we collect by nearly a third. And thanks to the

Federation’s constructive input to the PACE review, we

know where we need to simplify a range of processes –

including custody, bail and entry to premises.

Already, we are saving time and paper by streamlining

files in guilty plea cases, piloting integrated prosecution

teams of police and lawyers, and extending the use virtual

courts.

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But I want to go further, and appoint a senior figure to

work with front line practitioners and their managers to

make sure that change is felt on the ground. He – or she

– will lead a new group of police officers and other

practitioners to challenge and advise us on the impact of

our policies on operational staff and the public.

And I give you my commitment today that I want someone

for this role who has the skills and the credibility –

including credibility with you – to make it work.

The Green Paper will set out my determination to allow

you to use professional judgement more, and avoid

getting bogged down in unnecessary processes.

I want you to play your part in this. Your views, your

knowledge and experience are essential.

And I hope that one voice, in particular, will not be missing

from our ongoing debates about the future of policing.

Jan Berry’s. Throughout the time I have known you, Jan,

you have managed to combine total commitment to the

cause of police officers with a genuine willingness to

engage on the big issues that matter to the future of

policing.

As Chairman and General Secretary, you and John have

been prized and valued colleagues. I have never doubted

the tenacity with which you have pursued your members’

interests.

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Thank you for your years of dedication to the Police

Federation. Thank you for your decades of service to

British policing.

As I’ve found this morning, you will be a tough act to

follow. And I hope that we have not seen the last of you

yet – or for a long time to come.

You understand that a self-confident and professional

police force is a force to be reckoned with.

And you know that a police force which looks to the future

holds a position of privilege in our society, and commands

the confidence of our communities. So do I.

Thank you.