Police officer pay has largely been agreed and sorted across the UK for 2025/26 (except that for PSNI officers). But following the government’s recent Budget, the Federation has warned most officers are being pulled into the higher tax bracket.
Police pay is a contentious subject. Forces struggle to budget for it with underfunded national pay awards, while in turn officers are struggling with the cost of living. Pay is commonly rated poorly in national workforce and wellbeing surveys. Most recently, pay is one of the three most frequently highlighted themes in Police Scotland’s newly published annual workforce survey.
Money is important to people, both inside and outside policing as inflation bites. Promotion through the ranks takes on additional responsibilities, but is one way to secure your finances. Here’s a quick update the state of police officer salaries across all ranks and regions of the UK, the effect of tax, and how salary has changed over recent years.
As always, see my website for the latest on police pay scales by rank…
Police Pay Awards Agreed, Mostly Implemented
Earlier this year, England and Wales officers saw a 4.2% pay increase for 2025/26, effective from 01/09/2025. This applied for all ranks from Constable to Chief Superintendent, similar to what the senior officer associations argued for. Chief Officer increments are yet to be decided.
This increase was matched closely by Police Scotland at 4.0% (applies from 01/04/2025). Scotland also agreed what 2026/27 will be (3.5% from 01/04/2026). PSNI officer pay will follow that of England and Wales counterparts. But as per last year, there’s been delays for their 2025/26 increase to hit pay packets.
The Met Police offer additional payments as part of their attempts to retain officers. Turnover there has been high, following what is starting to look like a temporary ‘uplift’.
In the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), the pay award has again been delayed. As usual, the award follows England and Wales forces at 4.2% for ranks between Constable to Chief Superintendent, applicable from 01/09/2025. However, it won’t take effect until the January 2026 salaries.
The Justice Department has received £4.7m to implement the 4.2% pay uplift. But the maths doesn’t work out on that for the nearly 6,200 officers in PSNI. At an average of £2,000 increase per FTE, over £12m will be needed. The force will therefore need to find an additional £7m in savings from its near £1bn budget. It seems a common theme around the UK where police pay awards don’t get fully funded.
As the new year approaches and all pay settlements have at least been decided, let’s explore how officer salaries now compare around the UK…
Broad Comparison of Officer Salary Across UK Forces
Above I’ve covered the top salaries of each Federated rank across the main forces around the UK. This includes the Met Police separately given the additional market supplements available for officers there, giving officers there an almost £10k boost.
For the Constable rank, the Met Police naturally lead the way with this market supplement. Officers across England and Wales and PSNI now can earn a salary of £50k within six years’ service. Police Scotland offer their experienced cops a little more, now over £52k, but it takes 11 years to reach this pay point and taxes are slightly higher there too.
Note that PSNI officers also get a £4k Northern Ireland Transitional Allowance (NITA) from commencement. So in real pay, that would actually place them ahead of Police Scotland on all ranks except Chief Inspector.
Upon promotion to Sergeant, those at the top of the scale will are now well into the ‘higher earner’ tax bracket. Again, Police Scotland Sergeants earn around £2.5k more than their UK counterparts, with those in the Met Police reaching £66k with market supplements. It takes two years to reach the top of the scale across England and Wales, PSNI and the Met Police, whereas for Police Scotland it’s three years.
Promotion to Inspector sees the biggest jump between the top scales of these Fed ranks. Salary increases by £13k (£15k Met) within three years across England and Wales and PSNI. Police Scotland Inspectors take four years to achieve the top of this scale at £72k.
The bump up from Inspector to Chief Inspector is relatively small in comparison, ranging from a difference of £4k at the top of the scale in England and Wales forces and PSNI, to a slightly more generous £6k in Scotland. Again however, Scottish officers take an extra year (three total) to reach the top of the Chief Inspector scale. And this gateway to Superintendent rank is not for the faint-hearted!
Note that income taxes are higher in Scotland, negating some of the slightly higher salaries. The ‘Higher Rate’ tax is currently 42% for earnings above £44k, with an additional ‘Advanced Rate’ of 45% for income over £75k. Given pension contributions, this Advanced Rate likely wouldn’t affect officers until reaching Superintendent.
Police Scotland Salaries by Rank
As the most recently-agreed pay awards with a two-year fixed deal through to 2026/27, let’s start with police officer pay in Scotland.
Just as a recap, the Scottish Police Authority agreed a 4% pay increase for 2025/26 and at least 3.5% for 2026/27 (effective from 1 April), applicable to “all ranks and pay points”. The ‘at least’ bit means that even if CPI inflation goes higher next year, the 2026/27 award is guaranteed to go 1% higher than CPI.
As I’ve argued before, this ‘flat rate for all ranks’ seems a missed opportunity for a more progressive pay award. The latter is easily doable, but is never argued for (by either of the negotiating sides). You’d simply taper a higher percentage towards the more junior ranks who need more support in the face of the increased cost of living. 4% on a new PC’s salary (just over £1k) is far less than 4% on a Chief Officer salary (just over £10k).
Sticking to the current 2025/26 rates, this 4% pay increase compares against a 4.6% increase in Scotland generally. The average full-time salary across Scotland is now £40k. New officers in Scotland join on £33k, a slightly more generous starting point than counterparts over the border (£31k). They reach the national average within three years’ service.
There is now a £20k pay span at the Constable rank, from the £33k new joiner rate to the £53k top rate. It takes 11 years’ service however to reach that top scale of pay (unless you’re going for promotion). Within four months, the 2026-27 rate will apply in officers’ salaries, which we now know to be £34k – £54k (+3.5%).
The Police Scotland Sergeant salary scale ranges from £54k upon appointment to £59k three years later. This will increase to a £56k – £61k range from 1 April 2026, well into the Scottish higher rate tax bracket of 42% for earnings above £44k. As soon as you hit Sergeant, you’ll become a higher rate tax payer even after pension is taken out.
At Inspector, the pay increases to a starting salary of £65k, up to £72k within four years’ service. From April 2026, this will bump up by 3.5% to a £67k – £75k range. Chief Inspectors in Scotland now earn between £73k and £78k (within three years), which will increase to £76k – £81k in April 2026, placing them in the top 10% of UK earners.
Salaries for senior officers in Scotland (Superintendent and above) have also increased by the same 4% for 2025/26 and 3.5% for 2026/27. As a recap, here’s the salary bandings for each…
- Superintendent: £86k – £102k (2026/27 will be £89k – £105k)
- Chief Superintendent: £107k – £116k (2026/27 will be £110k – £120k)
- Assistant Chief Constable: £158k – £168k (2026/27 will be £163k – £174k)
- Deputy Chief Constable: £222k (2026/27 will be £230k)
- Chief Constable: £271k (2026/27 will be £280k)
There are three main levels of tax applicable to experienced and senior officers in Scotland: The Higher Rate of 42% for earnings between £44k – £75k. The Advanced Rate of 45% for that between £75k – £125k. Then the Top Rate of 48% applies for anything over £125k.
After accounting for pension deductions, this means a top scale ACC pays over £61k in tax and national insurance. For the DCC it’s £85k and the Chief will be paying out around £107k in taxes. If you’re interested, the same £271k salary if taxed in England would nearly £10k less in tax.
England and Wales Salaries by Rank
Unlike in Scotland, pay awards to the salary scales for officers (and civilian staff) in England and Wales forces apply from 1 September each year. This was reviewed in August and as usual, applies only for the following year (01/09/25 – 31/08/26).
For 2025/26, the headline police pay increase was 4.2%, covering ranks from Constable to Chief Superintendent. Read a more in-depth review in my August police pay blog, reporting on police pay awards around the country, inflation effects, and comparisons against other sectors / countries. For this blog, we’ll focus on actual salaries.
The average full-time annual salary in the UK according to the government’s Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is £39k (£41k in the public sector, £38k in the private sector). That’s slightly lower than Scotland’s £40k average (£42k public, £39k private).
Excluding any local allowances, Police Constables start on £31k, rising to £50k in six years on the current pay scales. It takes five years for officers at this rank to exceed the national average salary, whereas in Scotland it’s just three. Five years in, PCs here are earning £6k less than in Scotland.
Below I demonstrate how the salary band has changed since 2016/17. Experienced officers on £38k then have risen slowly, now at £50k. The new joiner in 2017/18 started on a very low £20k, but has experienced much faster growth in salary, particularly for the last few years as this is where the pay scale spreads out more (to encourage retention). The only way to break these basic salary boundaries is promotion to Sergeant…
The Sergeant salary scale ranges from just under £54k to just over £56k within two years. Then on promotion to Inspector the officer salary scale jumps, ranging from £64k to £69k in three years. At Chief Inspector, there’s another small increase as salary goes from £70k to £73k within two years.
At Superintendent, the 4.2% pay increase pushed the pay scale up to between £84k and £99k after three years’ service at this rank. For Chief Superintendents, the pay band is now £104k – £116k. Both are similar to counterparts in Police Scotland.
For Chief Officers, the salary increment has not yet been decided. While the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) has submitted its recommendations of a similar 4%, nothing has been put in place. So for now, the 2024/25 salaries apply (see my earlier report), which are as follows…
- Assistant Chief Constable: The ACC (or Commander in the Met Police) salary band ranges from £120k to £136k within two years.
- Deputy Chief Constable: DCCs vary depending on the size of the force. For smaller forces (Group 3) it’s £150k, the medium-sized Group 2 forces pay £166k, and the large Group 1 forces (GMP, WMP, West Yorks, and TVP) attract a salary of £191k. The equivalent Deputy Assistant Commissioner rank in the Met Police also pays £191k.
- Chief Constable: Again, this rank varies by force. The big Group 1 forces pay £231k, medium ones are £201k, while the salary for Chiefs of the smaller forces are on £182k. The Met Police equivalent rank of Assistant Commissioner matches the Group 1 salary at £231k.
- Deputy Commissioner: The Met Police as a supermassive force (accounting for 22% of all England and Wales FTE officers) has two extra ranks. The Dep. Commissioner rank attracts a salary of £273k.
- Commissioner: As the most senior officer in the country, the Met Police Commissioner attracts a salary of £330k. Sir Mark Rowley QPM has occupied the unenviable position for just over three years. For some history, the salary for this position back in 2016/17 was £271k.
Officers in the Met Police and City of London receive additional allowances on top of base salary, totalling nearly £10k. Interestingly, the London average full-time salary among the general public is also £10k higher, nearing £50k according to the ASHE. Here’s those London allowances boosting police pay for 2025/26:
- London Weighting: £3,150
- London Allowance 1: £1,011
- London Allowance 2: £5,577
Some other forces in the South East also apply local salary supplements. There’s a £3,000 bolt-on allowance for officers in Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Surrey, and Thames Valley Police. Officers within Bedfordshire, Hampshire, and Sussex attract an extra £2,000. In the proposed creation of ‘mega-forces’ by 2030, arrangements for these local supplements are clearly another thing to sort out!
Just touching on pay and tax for a moment… The recent Labour Budget announced an extension to the freeze on the tax bands until 2031, meaning that everyone, low and high earners alike, will be taxed more as inflation bites. The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) recently warned this push almost all full-time officers at Constable rank into the higher-rate tax bracket of 40%. Prior to the freeze took hold in 2021, only 19% of PCs were in this bracket.
The Federation’s CEO Mukund Krishna explains:
“This new analysis is stark. Freezing tax thresholds until 2031 means almost every police officer in England and Wales will be paying higher-rate tax within six years. Not because they’re earning more – but because the Government has designed a system that quietly drags them into higher taxation every year. It is a stealth tax in its purest form. Higher-rate tax used to apply to senior ranks but now it’s bearing down on the average Constable.”
A Note on the Police Federation CEO’s Salary…
Having quoted the Federation’s CEO on officer salaries, in an article about police salaries at all levels, this one deserves a special mention.
The PFEW’s controversial CEO has been hitting the headlines again recently. This time it’s over his salary and bonuses, along with a lack of transparency in the use of members’ funds, plus the Fed’s long fight against publishing such figures. But you can see why the PFEW shied from transparency on this. When the figures finally came out, officer members were understandably furious to say the least.
Just last month, it was reported that the salary for this post has blown all other policing (and union) salaries out of the water. At £342k basic salary, it’s already far more than any other Chief Officer across the UK. It’s even £12k more than the Met Police Commissioner (£330k), who manages a £3.8 billion organisation of 46,000 people.
In comparison, the PFEW annual budget is £0.045 billion (1% of the Met’s) and employs 80 people. That is, according to the Fed’s 2022 accounts. The PFEW have not yet published its statutory 2023 or 2024 accounts, which are now significantly overdue. This highly unusual delay has caused reprimands from the Home Office and suspicion from its members.
For each of the two years of the post’s existence so far, the Fed CEO received a 100% bonus. This brings the total real salary (excluding pensions) to £684k per year. That’s equivalent to the entire annual membership contributions of nearly 2,400 officers. Or put another way, the subs of all officers in a medium sized force, like Cheshire or Nottinghamshire.
For further context, this salary is at least double that of any other CEO in any other public sector organisation. There’s 1000’s of such organisations, such as NHS Trusts, councils, and local authorities. Even Tim Davie, Director-General of the BBC, might have raised an eyebrow at the news given his salary is “only” around £525k. The BBC is an international corporation managing a £6 billion turnover.If you want further critique on the Fed CEO’s salary controversy, this is an interesting article. Now let’s get back to UK officer salaries…
Police Service of Northern Ireland Salaries by Rank
PSNI salary bands follow exactly that of the England and Wales counterparts. The 2025-26 rates will kick in (belatedly) from January salaries and the pay bandings are therefore as follows:
- Constable: Join on £31k, up to £50k within six years.
- Sergeant: £54k starting salary, rising to £56k in two years.
- Inspector: £64k to £69k in three years.
- Chief Inspector: £70k to £73k in two years.
- Superintendent: £84k to £99k in three years.
- Chief Superintendent: £104k to £116k in two years.
Akin to how the Met Police and other England and Wales forces pay an additional ‘market supplement’, PSNI pay a Northern Ireland Transitional Allowance to all officers. This NITA amounts to £4,283 per year, so you can add that amount to all these basic scales for more accurate earnings.
As with England and Wales, salary rates for senior officers (ACC – Chief Constable) are yet to be decided for 2025/26. But given the salaries of PSNI follow England and Wales, and are considered equivalent to the big ‘Group 1’ forces, here’s the Chief Officer salaries as they stand today:
- Assistant Chief Constable: The ACC (salary band ranges from £120k to £136k within two years.
- Deputy Chief Constable: The DCC attracts a salary of £191k.
- Chief Constable: £231k
The PSNI accounts for 2024/25 give more real-world figures for Chief Officers, which are a little higher likely owing to the addition of NITA.
The Effect of Promotion on Salary
“I have no hesitation in recommending this service to others aspiring to take that next step towards promotion. The session is excellent value, which will be more than recouped on my first pay packet as inspector.” – Paul, Passed Inspector Board
We’ve already seen the difference in salary between the pay bandings of different ranks. But how does it compare in practical terms through one’s career?
Most officers apply for Sergeant promotion after five years as Constable. That’s over a £10k jump in one go when successful and having put in some smart, hard work. In England and Wales forces for example, salary moves from £43k to £54k in this scenario.
Here’s the value of a salary increase for England and Wales officers on the 2025/26 upon achieving promotion for the Federated ranks. This is where Rank Success provides the most support and why I point out you’ll get the investment in yourself back in your very first pay packet…
- 5 year PC to Sergeant: + £10,530 annually (+ £877 per month)
- Top rate Sergeant to Inspector: + £7,560 annually (+ £630 per month)
- Top rate Inspector to Chief Inspector: + 1,362 (+ £114 per month)
Clearly there’s financial security to be had in taking on these additional responsibilities of promotion. Going from Inspector to Chief Inspector doesn’t come with much direct increase in salary, yet this niche role carries a great deal more responsibility. However, it’s the gateway to Superintendent (salary scale £84k – £99k), and no doubt you’ll soon be performing A/Supt duties after promotion.
Let’s track the experience of a common story I encounter and support officers with promotion: A PC part way through their pay band then promoted to Sergeant. I’ve tracked before the journey of England and Wales officers, so let’s look this time at that for Police Scotland…
A new PC joining in 2019/20 began on £26k. Six years on with annual increments and the pay awards to salary bandings, they’re now at £43k. Next year, they’ll move up another increment and have the 3.5% increase applied, to £46k.
The PC with a middling five years’ service in 2019/20 was earning £35k then and will have achieved the top band of £53k this year. Next year, that increases by 3.5% to £54k. Meanwhile, colleagues already at the top pay band of £41k in 2019/20 have been reliant on pay awards alone for salary increases to £53k now.
The red line above depicts the effect of promotion for a PC with six years’ service in 2022/23, on £38k at this point. Promotion to Sergeant represented an immediate £12k salary increase the next year, and for 2025/26 are now on £57k. Next year this will rise to £61k as they reach the top of the Sergeant pay scale and receive the planned 3.5% increment to that scale.
I hope you find this blog informative and interesting. The prospects for promotion certainly provide food for thought. If you are seeking a leadership role and want to take on those additional responsibilities, give me a call for some free support.
Kind Regards, Steve
“My return on investment is significant! I am definitely all in on the ‘return on investment’ concept. The cost is now insignificant when considering my pay rise and linked pension! (e.g. as you say, “back in your first Inspector pay!”)” – Successful Inspector candidate