HAMPSHIRE Constabulary is continuing work with its shared services provider to resolve the cause of problems that have impacted the payment of some allowances to police officers and staff.
The force has been working with Hampshire Police Federation and has identified some further issues, this time relating to ‘Bear Scotland’ payments. These relate to a national legal ruling that identified the need for all forces to pay compensation for loss of holiday pay to those working overtime or claiming other allowances.
A national agreement gave the force two options. Calculate and pay each of 3,003 officers (excluding senior officers) a compensation allowance relating to their own circumstances, or pay everyone a flat rate of £60. The first option was chosen but this has led to issues in terms of fairness as a three month period was used to determine what officers were compensated for a year, instead of being based on an actual annual calculation. This approach has, inadvertently, created winners and losers. In addition an error was made that resulted in 400 officers being compensated by the wrong amount.
As a result, a decision has been taken to pay everyone the £60 flat rate option. Those who were paid compensation of more than £60 will not have the compensation taken back.
Acting Deputy Chief Constable, David Pryde said:
“The problems that we have faced with allowance payments are well known but I would again like to apologise to anyone who has been affected. We have acted swiftly to put this right and now have work streams up and running to resolve the cause of what has happened and why. Importantly, this is taking on board the views of staff and officers and everyone agrees it is important to take the time to get this right.”
Hampshire County Council Chief Executive, John Coughlan commented:
“We have been working closely with the Constabulary to diagnose exactly what the underlying reason for the problems are and progress is being made. We’d like to apologise to anyone impacted. Our aim is to deliver the best support service, so vital public sector services are protected as much as possible.”
Taking into consideration all of the factors, applying the £60 option is the lowest cost way of resolving the matter, which will amount to £207,032 - compared with £180,180 if that option had been applied initially. Paying the £60 flat rate is supported by Hampshire Police Federation.