Miscellaneous police reform initiatives

Report: 10
Date: 8 January 2004
By: Commissioner

Summary

As part of the agreed HR Committee workplan, this report has been produced to provide Human Resources Committee with information in respect of three non-pay Police Reform initiatives, namely, the 30+ Scheme, more flexible use of police officers and the Rationalising of Police Allowances. It builds on information provided in earlier reports.

A. Recommendation

That the report be noted.

B. Supporting information

30+ Scheme

1. The 30+ Retention Scheme is currently a two-phase pilot scheme that is managed by the Home Office. It has received Police Negotiating Board (PNB) agreement and the pilot scheme is due to be completed on 31 March 2004. Fifteen police forces throughout the UK are participating in Phase II of the pilot scheme including the Metropolitan Police Service. The scheme enables forces to retain essential experience and skills particularly where there are difficulties in attracting and retaining officers. It enables officers to take a tax-free retirement lump sum, under the Police Pensions Scheme commutation provisions. Officers retire and are re engaged at their former rank and pay.

2. Eight MPS officers were re engaged as a result of Phase I of the Scheme and it is anticipated that all 30 places allocated to us under Phase II will be utilised. The Home Office have not yet indicated whether there will be a Phase III or whether the Scheme will be retained in the longer term.

Rationalising allowances

3. The PNB Agreement as part of the Police Reform process provided for the rationalisation of the system of allowances. Specifically, it provided for

1. The halving of plain clothes allowance from 1 April 2003 and its discontinuation from 1 April 2004.
2. Discontinuation of the frozen undermanning allowance from 1 April 2003.
3. Discontinuation of firearms’ users standby allowance; and fingerprinting and searching badly decomposed bodies allowance. The former was to be replaced by eligibility for a special priority payment and the latter for consideration of a special bonus, both new payments introduced through the Police Reform process.
4. The replacing of the special or recurring escort duty allowance with an allowance specifically authorised by the Secretary of State under regulation 34 of the Police Regulations 2003.
5. The discontinuation of removal allowance and its replacement by reimbursement of expenses associated with the need to move house, provided the expenses were necessary, reasonable and backed by receipts.
6. The replacement of allowances for subsistence, refreshment and lodging by reimbursement of expenses necessarily incurred, provided the expenses were reasonable, additional to what the officer would have incurred and backed by receipts.

4. Of these, (f) proved the most difficult to implement, since no guidance had been offered as to what might be deemed reasonable and necessarily incurred. The matter was discussed with the Police Federation and Guidance Notes drawn up and published in Notices for the benefit of managers and officers. The Guidance Notes have been well received. Copies of the Guidance Notes will be available at the meeting for members’ information. The Secretary of State’s authority for an allowance to replace escort duty allowance as at (d) was obtained prior to 1 April 2003 so that there was no gap in payment. With regard to the allowances at (c), firearms officers are in receipt of an SPP and guidance has been issued about the criteria for awarding bonus payments.

5. With the exception of discontinuation of the plain clothes allowance (see (a) above) which is effective from 1 April 2004 these aspects of the Police Reform process have been successfully implemented.

Flexible use of police officers

6. The flexible working policy was refreshed and re-launched in July 2003. It ensured that the MPS was compliant with the Employment Act 2002. The MPS policy goes further than the legal requirement, which enables individuals to ask for flexible working, and we stipulated that requests be seriously considered.

7. A variety of work patterns are available ranging from the traditional part-time work to compressed hours and term-time working. The patterns are guides and other suggested work patterns can be considered. This allows local managers and staff to combine meeting the needs of the individual with the organisational requirement to have most staff working at times of high demand. It therefore potentially reduces the need for overtime to be used.

8. It is planned that towards the end of next year further reports will be created on MetHR to analyse the sickness levels of those working a flexible working pattern against their previous attendance history and that of colleagues working in similar roles, but performing traditional working patterns. It is expected that those who are achieving a suitable work-life balance will have fewer absences and thus reducing the need for staff to use overtime to cover staff shortages.

9. With the completion of phase 2 of the MetDuties project, all police officers and police staff will be recording their attendance via the Aware system. This again will allow a single source of data for processing at a micro and macro level the impact of flexible working.

C. Equality and diversity implications

1. The 30+ Retention Scheme stipulates basic eligibility criteria relating purely to the completion of thirty years pensionable service being attained prior to the conclusion of the pilot.

2. To ensure the strictly limited number of places available to the MPS under Phase II are allocated according to priority and an identified Service need the following three strands of criteria were added:

• Posts where the Service has difficulty in recruiting staff to them.
• Posts where the Service has difficulty in retaining staff in them, resulting in a disproportionate turn over of staff.
• Posts where the current incumbent has specialist knowledge, skills and experience that would be difficult if not almost impossible to replace.

3. All officers with the requisite pensionable service that consider they meet one or more of the additional criteria have been eligible to submit an application. The outcome of Phase II will be monitored and evaluated.

4. The rationalization of allowances applied to all officers and so no equality and diversity implications arose.

5. Flexible use of police officers - MetHR has recently been updated to include information on requests for flexible working. This includes whether the request was accepted and the type of pattern worked. Information is recorded against the individual and is reportable. It will be possible to monitor any disproportionate application of the policy, for instance by location, rank/band, gender, or ethnicity.

D. Financial implications

1. HM Treasury did not provide additional funds for either Phase I or Phase II of the Scheme although, over time, it is cost neutral as there are no additional costs associated with it. If 30+ participants were actually retiring from the Service they would be in receipt of their lump sum and police pension. As the MPS has only 30 places under the scheme it has been confirmed that there is sufficient provision within the overall pay and pensions budget to meet the lump sum commitment and then continue to pay the participants their former rate of pay.

2. The rationalisation of allowances process has resulted in some savings, estimated in 2003/04 to be £3,984k. Savings will increase from 2004/05 with discontinuation of plain clothes allowance. Tables below give costs in the year 2002/03, for 1 April 2003 to 30 September 2003 covering the six months after changes were implemented, estimated for the year 2003/04, and savings (or increases).

Note: Plain clothes allowance will cease to be paid from 1 April 2004.

Note: Changes in other allowances have resulted in small or no differences and these have not been included above.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Michael Shurety, Director HR Pay and Benefits, MPS.

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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