PFNI chair welcomes police pay award but warns of further challenges
The chair of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland (PFNI) has welcomed the decision of the Northern Ireland Executive to support a pay award for police officers.
Liam Kelly said that now means that the affordability criteria can be evidenced.
However, the process now required means the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) must await the Justice Minister approving the Police Remuneration Review Body recommendations and inviting a business case from PSNI.
The PFNI said this business case then must be approved by the Department of Justice and Justice Minister before final scrutiny and ratification by the Department of Finance.
“So, there is still work to be done before the pay award gets final sign off in next month’s spending Monitoring Round,” it added.
Justice Minister Naomi Long received £6.7 million to help fund pay awards for police and prison officers, which is 50 per cent of what was requested.
Mr Kelly said: “This is progress, even though it’s torturously slow and cumbersome. The hope now is that the pay increase can be fast-tracked with the minimum of bureaucracy and that officers will receive their entitlement in their December payslips.
“There is a caveat. Police pay has steadily been eroded over the past ten years and while the pay increase will help, it won’t be enough to address the decade-long decline.
“I’m grateful to ministers who listened to what we had to say over recent months. At one point, there were real fears there wouldn’t be sufficient funds to make an award.
“This averts one crisis in policing, but there are other ‘big ticket’ items in Ministers’ in-trays. These include compensation for the data breach in 2023, the long-running holiday pay issue and, of course, the crying need for funding to support the Chief Constable’s Recovery Plan.”
Mr Kelly added: “The November Monitoring Round, where departmental underspends are re-distributed, is an opportunity for ministers to tangibly show they back the Recovery Plan which would see officer numbers start to increase from the present level of 6,190 to 7,000 by April 2028.
“Pay is but one, relatively small component of the multi-million-pound settlement that is required to put policing back on an even keel.
“If the Executive fails to find the financial resources needed to address all outstanding matters, then policing will continue to stare down a very dark tunnel indeed.”