On 29 July, the new government accepted in full the recommendations of the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) for England and Wales officers. This included a 4.75% increase in officer salary across all ranks and earlier access to annual leave increases. Changes will apply from 1 September. In this blog, as an update to my post on the fairness of the 2023/24 police pay award and another in my ‘Stats Corner’ theme recently, I cover the following:

  • What is the new salary scale for England and Wales officers in 2024/25?
  • What are the key points from the PRRB review around pay, allowances, and leave?
  • How has officer salary changed in recent years?
  • How does officer pay since 2017 compare against the cost of living increases?
  • What impact will promotion through the ranks have on salary?

As usual, the scope here is just for basic salary, excluding overtime, allowances, and such. The Met Police also have additional London salary weightings, which amount to an extra several £thousand on salaries there. See my police salary info page for more on these. You might also find this handy Excel money manager helpful to keeping on top of your finances in these difficult times.

The 2024/25 Pay Scale for England & Wales Officers

Police officer salary 2024 to 2025

So the headline pay rise figure agreed was 4.75% increase to all police officer ranks, with effect from 1 September 2024. Focusing on the Federated ranks from PC to Chief Inspector, the above chart provides an overview of the new salary scales. For context, the latest UK average annual salary stands at £33.5k.

Constables will begin on £30k per year, then progress to the new £48k top rung for this rank within 7 years, an increase of 61% (excluding the effect of other changes to the pay scale each year). Assuming officers are paying into the police pension, and using MSE’s handy tax calculator, this £48k gross equates to a net take-home of around £38k for experienced cops (just under £3.2k per month).

The top rate PC is now just shy of the higher rate tax bracket of £50k. Officers on the top band in London and other forces will be over that threshold, considering the local allowances and regional supplements (e.g. it’s an extra £8.4k in London and between £2-3k in South East forces). Financial reasons may therefore become another disincentive for experienced officers to work overtime, given income tax alone would eat away 40% of that earned, rather than the usual 20%. That’s in addition to the factors of workload, burnout and other increased pressures facing cops today, all dissuading many officers from putting themselves forward for overtime.

Sergeant promotion police

Promotion to Sergeant attracts a starting salary of £51k, which increases to £54k within two years. This is up from the £49k – £51k in effect currently applicable to the 22,000 Sergeants across England and Wales. The rate preceding last year’s 7% pay increase was £46k – £48k.

There is a marked jump to Inspector from Sergeant, starting at £61k and rising to £66k after three years in the job. After taxes and pension, that’s a take home of £46k a year, or £3.8k per month. Clearly then there are financial incentives for promotion to this more strategic rank.

The Chief Inspector salary will now begin at nearly £68k for the 2,200 individuals at this rank, rising to £70k within two years. This may not seem much above Inspector and is a relatively narrow salary band. However, officers here generally have an eye on stepping up to Superintendent, which will begin at £84k once this pay rise takes effect next month.

The Police Review Body Recommendations – Key Points

So we know the government accepted most of the recommendations from the full PRRB report. But given most people don’t read things beyond the 3rd party headlines of “4.75%”, I’ll outline the key points in this section.

The following PRRB recommendations were accepted by the government. Most will take effect from next month, unless otherwise mentioned:

  • PAY: Increase of 4.75% to all police officer pay points up to and including Chief Superintendent.
  • PAY: Increase of 4.75% to the London Weighting.
  • PAY: Increase in London Allowance by £1,250 (this was in lieu of the rejected recommendation to allow new London officers to begin on pay point 3).
  • PAY: Chief Constables to be given discretion to set starting salary of new constables at either pay point 1 or 2 (pending review, will likely take effect from 2025).
  • ALLOWANCE: Increase of 4.75% to the Dog Handlers’ Allowance, with the ‘additional dog rate’ doubled, so that’s now £2.8k for the first dog and £1.4k for any additional dogs.
  • ALLOWANCE: Increase in the On-Call Allowance from £20 to £25.
  • LEAVE: 30 days annual leave entitlement attained at 10 years’ service, reduced from 20 years’ service (takes effect from 1 April 2025).
  • LEAVE: Increase in annual leave entitlement for new officers from 22 to 25 days (takes effect from 1 April 2025).

In addition, the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) Report was published on the same day, making the below policing recommendations. All were accepted by the government and will take effect from next month:

  • PAY: Pay increase of 4.75% for all chief police officers across England and Wales and in Northern Ireland.
  • POWERS: Police and Crime Commissioner power to vary a Chief Constable’s starting pay removed.

A final point of interest from the PRRB report was the following recommendation, which was also approved in the Home Secretary’s formal response:

“The Home Office, National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) to work together as a matter of urgency to undertake a Comprehensive Review of police remuneration focused on examining pay and the mechanics of the coherence of pay scales, allowances, rewarding performance and the mechanism for progression, in order to produce a costed plan in preparation for the next Comprehensive Spending Review. As part of the review, the police service should ask itself some fundamental questions regarding the skills and capabilities it requires to deliver the best outcomes for the public, and how it can attract and retain those skills. We invite the Home Office, NPCC and APCC to provide a plan we can consider by January 2025.”

This is a big deal! But will it be enough to quell murmurings in the Federation and among officers arguing for the right to strike, following historic dissatisfaction among the rank and file with prior pay award outcomes? For example, in the PFEW official statement on the pay award, the Police Federation made the following comments:

 “The underlying problem is a broken pay mechanism that does not allow for negotiation, only the imposition of a fixed pay award. In a recent poll, 98% of officers supported the Federation’s call for a return to collective bargaining with binding arbitration, and we look forward to working closely with the new government to fix the current system.” – Mukund Krishna, PFEW Chief Executive

Further, the PFEW overall welcomed the rise in their announcement, although were disappointed the amount was below that for other public sector professions.

“This increase, coming on top of last year’s rise, goes some way to closing the gap between the 17 per cent real-term pay cut officers have suffered since 2010 as a result of successive below-inflation rises.”

So let’s compare recent years pay awards with inflation…

Police Officer Pay vs. Inflation

Police officer pay vs inflation

For officers at the top of their respective pay band for the rank, the only salary increase they’ll get each year is the annual pay award to the officer pay scale itself. Unless of course they decide to boost their salary by going for promotion.

In the above chart, I’ve tracked the pay award percentages since 2017 against the official Consumer Prices Index (CPI) measure of UK inflation. Given the latest available CPI measure is June 2024, each year uses June for comparison.

The total CPI inflation over the past 8 years amounts to 30%. In that time, a top rate officer salary has risen by 26%, a shortfall vs. inflation of 4%. These shortfalls were particularly apparent in the 2021 and 2022 pay awards. The recent 4.75% award goes a little way to bridging some of that gap.

Although all officers progress through the pay points each year, it is interesting to note that pay point 1 of the scale, where officers now begin, has increased by 29%. This disparity arose from the 2022/23 pay award, which granted a £1,900 uplift to all officer pay scales (an average of 5%).

An absolute £ increase works out proportionately higher for the lower paid scales and so is arguably a more ‘progressive’ approach for pay increases. For example, the latest 4.75% equates to an extra £1,400 for new recruit PCs, £2,200 for PCs on the top pay point after 6 years, £3,200 for experienced Chief Inspectors, and so on through to a £10,000 increase for the Chief Constables of the largest forces.

So how does officer salary compare against other professions around the UK generally over time?

The below graph summarises the salary range for England and Wales police constables since 2016, against the UK average salary for each year. While a top-rate PC has always exceeded national average salaries, that of a new joiner suffered a growing disparity for five years to 2021. This was slightly recovered in the 2022/23 pay award, but the removal of pay point 0 from 2023/24 largely bridged the gap for new joiners.

Police officer pay by year to 2025

Police Constable Pay Increases with Experience

While the increases to the pay scale is one annual salary increase for officers, the main increase for the junior ranks comes from the annual progression through the pay bands. This career prospect ensures policing remains an attractive proposition for those in it for the long game and for whom financial security is important.

In the below graph, I’ve compared three officer pay scenarios since 2017, tracking the salaries of a new joiner PC, one with 3 years’ service at that point, then another already at the top of the scale.

Police officer pay rises

Seven years into their career, the new joiner has seen their salary increase by 142%. This will have required stomaching an unarguably paltry starting salary at that time of just under £20k, with that loyalty being mostly rewarded in the last two years of the seven, whereby the pay increments really do hike up.

In 2017, the salary of an officer three years in would have been a little over £25k. Assuming they haven’t achieved promotion in that time, from next month this will be £48k, a 91% increase when combining their progression through the pay scales with the annual rises to that pay scale.

For those already at the top of the salary band in 2017, their salary has risen below inflation, from £38k to what will be £48k from next month (26%). To beat inflation from here, the only option to improve one’s salary is to achieve promotion.

“Hi Steve. Just a quick update for you. I’ve 25 years’ service. 20 Met, now with Police Scotland. Been Acting Sergeant for 10 months. Decided to put in for the promotion process and came across you on YouTube by chance. Then I found you on Spotify. I have listened and watched virtually everything you have done to date. I passed and I just can’t believe it. First time and I passed. Just to say thanks for your help and all your content. It made me concentrate, take a good look at myself and get match fit! The little things you said have been like gold dust for me. During the process all your material was just so helpful. Some of it I’d not even considered before and it just made me so confident on the day. Thanks very much again!! Cheers Steve!” – Anon, Passed Sergeant Promotion Board

And how do you do that exactly, you may ask? Well, the answer is simply investing in yourself now (you’ll thank yourself later!)…

“Steve’s guidance allowed me to bring my cloud of accumulated knowledge and experience into a focused ordered structure to maximise scoring in those 45 minutes you have to shine… this made that difference that allowed me to pass my Inspectors board first time. I never really considered support until a colleague mentioned it (who had been successful through Steve’s support). I have no hesitation in recommending [Rank Success] to others aspiring towards promotion.. excellent value more than recouped on my first pay packet as inspector.” – Paul, Passed Inspector 1st Time.

I hope you’ve found this quick update and analysis of the police pay award (and other factors) interesting. I’ll soon be updating my UK police salaries info page once the pay points are formally confirmed. Until then it is worth noting some key points for other forces around the UK in terms of pay increases for 2024/25:

Kind Regards, Steve

Seeking police promotion? Want to get a massive head start right now? Hit the ground running with your personal digital promotion toolkit, and/or my market-leading Police Promotion Masterclass. There’s nothing else like it to effectively prepare you for success in your leadership aspirations. You can also contact me to arrange more personal coaching support. Or try my podcast for your ongoing police leadership CPD covering a range of fascinating subjects.

Police promotion to inspector