Episode 6.22: Police Pay Award 3.5% Landing This Month!

Rank Success: The No.1 Police Promotion and Leadership Podcast

Steve Cooper examines the 3.5% police pay award effective September 2026 for England and Wales, comparing it against inflation and previous

Key takeaways

• The 3.5% award is below the 3.9% increase recommended by the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB).
• A funding gap exists because the Home Office provided £144 million, while the award requires over £250 million to be fully funded.

Main topics

• Police Pay Award 2026
• Inflation vs. Pay Increases

Notable quotes

Affordability is ultimately a matter of choice.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a critical analysis for officers to understand t

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:09) Hi I'm Steve Cooper, Rank Success and welcome to another episode of my Police Promotion and Leadership Podcast giving you CPD on the go wherever you may be listening. Today's podcast episode is all about the Police Officer Pay Award 2026 versus inflation. And in this podcast, I go through how the 3.5 % compares against the requests made by varying negotiating bodies and inflation, what it means in terms of the increase for each rank, and then I summarise what officer pay looks like now. So let's head on over to the podcast in a minute. All of it's relevant to you, please. leadership and promotion ambitions because as an aspiring leader, manager, supervisor, this is part of the background that your officers, your teams are operating in, within and against. And if you've got something interesting to say, please get in touch. I'm happy to share my platform for diverse perspectives on policing and leadership. And if you do aspire to promotion, this podcast is fantastic for your longer term leadership development and if you're thinking about promotion. But if you've got a process coming up or deadlines pending, my masterclass and premium toolkits take away the panic, level the playing field and set you up for success in the shortest possible time. They're the best investment you can make in yourself to turbocharge your preparation and I'll share some brief info on these toolkits in the podcast. Now let's get straight into the episode. Speaker 1 (1:47) Hi, Steve Cooper, Rank Success, and welcome to another episode of the Rank Success Police Promotion and Leadership Podcast. Today's episode is all about the Police Officer Pay Award 2026 versus inflation and looking at pay elsewhere. So the Home Office have confirmed that a flat 3.5 % pay award across all police officer ranks for England and Wales. will be effective or is effective from September 1st, 2026. So that money, that pay increase, that salary enhancement will be going into bank accounts, your home accounts at the end of this month. And this announcement of 3.5 % felt effectively a bit like a blow to the morale of frontline officers for multiple reasons. So in this podcast, I'm going to go through exactly what was agreed, how the 3.5 % compares against the requests made by varying negotiating bodies and inflation, and what it means in terms of increase for each rank, and then I'm going to summarise what officer pay looks like now. So I'll be covering a few topics around the police... pay award highlights, police pay requests versus reality, whether policing can afford to award officers the bare minimum, and then looking at some of the pay increases versus inflation, and then I'll finish with what does that police pay increase look like in your pocket. Okay, so always a podcast, always an episode of interest. I have written a blog at... policepromotion.blog so you can hop across there and read that if you want to see some of the graphics that I'm talking about you want to find out a little bit more of the detail or you just want to save it and come back to it in terms of pay scales I do update the pay scales at ranksuccess.co.uk so you can hop along there and look at what the current pay scales and pay rates look like for different ranks but I wanted to just take some time and space for you whether you're on a commute or whether you're listening to this out walking with your dog, or you just want to look at what the potential is in terms of pay now and moving into the future. So a podcast is a different way of taking that information on board. As I say, I've done a blog at policepromotion.blog. I've put some links to the blog on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, etc, etc. I'm still learning on those platforms, so forgive me if there's the odd... dud link in there but they don't always let you link to things so I'm going to come back to this and I'm going to go through I said first and foremost that this announcement of a pay increase 3.5 % actually felt like a blow to the morale of frontline officers and that's for multiple reasons and some of those reasons include the fact that it's below par so the 3.5 % that's been awarded for officers is below the 3.9%, which was recommended by the government's own independent police remuneration review body, so the PRRB. There's also growing discontent with the Police Federation among the workforce who can't take industrial action. And there's increasing discontent with the perceived lack of teeth and influence of the Police Federation of England and Wales, who, to be fair, had requested 7 % a year for the next three years. So an interesting point there around growing discontent. The National Police Chiefs Council and government alignment is another source of morale because whilst the National Police Chiefs Council, MPCC, publicly expressed dismay at the decision, it was exactly at the top end of what they had requested to help forces manage tight budgets. And this seems like another example whereby there's increasingly... cops are increasingly feeling a lack of support or representation, certainly the perception there, from their own senior officers, very senior officers, so the National Police Chiefs Council. One of those other reasons is the higher rate tax pinch point. So long-term freezes on the 40 % tax starting point, combined with pay inflation. means that far more officers will find themselves in this bracket going forward. Sergeants are already there, and experienced constables will see less than half of any overtime worked when you take into account the higher tax, national insurance and pension contributions. Another point around it, and it may be argued as an opportunity missed, is that this pay rise, this pay increase, this pay award is not progressive or tapered in any way. So a progressive or a tapered police salary rise would more quickly target the depreciation seen for new joiners and junior ranks than the higher ranks within the same financial envelope. But this more, if you like, sophisticated approach receives little interest, it would seem, from the Federation or the government alike. So in this podcast, I'm going to go through exactly what was agreed, how the 3.5 % compares against the requests made by the varying negotiating bodies and inflation and what it means in terms of increase for each rank, and then I'm going to summarise what officer pay looks like now. OK, so first and foremost, the 2026 Police Pay Award highlights. I've got some quotes in here. This one's from the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood. Police officers perform one of the most challenging and important roles in public service. Every day they put themselves in harm's way to keep our communities safe, protect vulnerable people and uphold the rule of law. And on the 15th of July, 2026, so whilst this pay increase has come in in September and it's actually been implemented now, going back to the 15th of July, the Home Secretary issued a written ministerial statement outlining the complete 2026-27 police pay and conditions package. And this was issued at the same time as the PRRB's 12th report on England and Wales. So that's the police remuneration and review body. And while the headline 3.5 % basic salary increase has dominated the news... The full government award includes several changes to regional allowances, leave entitlements and funding. Here's some of the highlights of the 2026 Police Pay Award notice. So, 3.5 % increased to basic salary for all officers at all ranks from constable to chief officer. 3.5 % also to London waiting allowance and the South East allowance. Speaker 1 (9:12) Police pay rises will take effect from the 1st of September 2026, so that's actually in, as I alluded to, and you're about to get the first pay packet with it in. There's an £8 increase to protection allowance rates, but additional, only partial funding will be given by the Home Office in terms of supporting the costs of this pay award, and I'll talk more about that in a minute, I'll cover more about it. and maternity and adoption support paid leave has increased to two weeks. As I say, you can have a look at my 2025 pay award blog to see how all of this compares to last year. And note that the additional funding offered by the Home Office is just £144 million for the first full year. Given that the weighted average police officer salary across all ranks is around £50,000, a 3.5 % increase requires well over £250 million to be considered fully funded. So the Home Office have given £144,000, but this pay award costs £250,000 in order to be considered fully funded. That funding or this funding will also be allocated according to the police funding formula, not how many officers each force actually has. So forces will therefore now need to find over £106 million in annual savings to implement this