The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) is the statutory staff association for police constables, sergeants, inspectors, chief inspectors and special constables in the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales.[1] Under UK labour law, the police are prohibited from joining ordinary trade unions to defend pay and working conditions, by the Police Act 1996, because of the view that a police strike would pose an exceptional public safety risk. The PFEW was originally established by the Police Act 1919 as an alternative system, which would serve to represent staff, and where disputes could be resolved through arbitration so long as the government (as employer) continued to bargain in good faith.
PFEW represents more than 130,000 members.[2] Members can elect not to pay subscriptions and thereby not receive the legal representation and other benefits that paying members receive, but they still continue officially to be members of the Federation. Superintendents and chief superintendents are represented by a separate staff association, the Police Superintendents' Association of England and Wales (PSA),[3] while the most senior officers are members of the Chief Police Officers Staff Association (CPOSA).
The Police Federation of England and Wales was set up by the Police Act 1919 after two British police strikes in 1918 and 1919. The government of the day were frightened by the prospect of the police going on strike and created the PFEW and withdrew the right of officers in the UK to strike.[4]
Police officers hold office and are not employees.[5] Each officer is an independent legal official and not an "agent of the police force, police authority or government".[6] This allows the police their unique status and notionally provides the citizens of the UK a protection from any government that might wish unlawfully to use the police as an instrument against them. Many observers mistakenly equate the Police Federation with a trade union. This is technically an incorrect assumption, as it was set up specifically by the Government of the day not to be a trade union; however in reality the Federation does function in a similar manner. It negotiates with key decision makers including the Government and chief constables[clarification needed] on all matters concerning its membership's pay, allowances, hour of duty, annual leave, pensions and other conditions of service. However, unlike a union, the Federation is controlled entirely by serving police officers, has no political affiliations, and has no powers to call a strike.[7] That is not to say the Federation remains aloof from applying political pressure, as shown by the successful 1976 ballot regarding the right to strike[4] and the 2012/13 "Plebgate" affair.
Organisation
Each of the 43 police forces in England and Wales has its own Federation branch board and council. The 43 forces are grouped into eight regions. Due to its size, the Metropolitan Police Federation branch board is structured differently.
At the end of December 2012, the PFEW announced it would be independently reviewed. The review was conducted by Sir David Normington and the Police Federation accepted all 36 recommendations of the review in May 2014 and started working through making these organisational changes.
As such, an Interim National Board (INB) was set up (formerly the Joint Central Committee) which had responsibility for national pay negotiations on behalf of its members. This has now been superseded by the National Board. It also performs many other functions, such as training, administering legal representation and liaising with government and other national bodies on policy and legislative matters. The present national board chair is Steve Hartshorn.
The PFEW's headquarters is at Leatherhead, Surrey, in a complex which also incorporates the Federation's national training centre and a hotel facility for Federation members.
Past turbulence
The chair and general secretary of PFEW both retired after a "turbulent period" on 7 April 2014. Steve Williams and Ian Rennie announced their plans to retire from the police service at the end of May.[8] Steve White was elected as chair and Andy Fittes elected as General Secretary at the Police Federation's Annual Conference in May 2014.
At the same conference (on 21 May 2014), the Home Secretary Theresa May announced that public funding of the Police Federation would end in August 2014.
↑ Great Britain Parliament House of Commons Home Affairs Committee (3 November 2013). Leadership and standards in the police: follow-up tenth report of session 2013-14: Vol. 1. London: The Stationery Office. p.10. House of Commons papers 756-I 2013-14.
↑ "What is the Office of Constable?"(PDF). The Office of Constable: The bedrock of modern day British policing. Leatherhead: Police Federation of England and Wales. p.7. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
Chief Constable is the rank used by the chief police officer of every territorial police force in the United Kingdom except for the City of London Police and the Metropolitan Police, as well as the chief officers of the three 'special' national police forces, the British Transport Police, Ministry of Defence Police, and Civil Nuclear Constabulary. The title is also held by the chief officers of the principal Crown Dependency police forces and the Sovereign Base Areas Police in Cyprus. The title was also held, ex officio, by the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers under the Police Reform Act 2002. It was also the title of the chief officer of the Royal Parks Constabulary until this agency was disbanded in 2004.
The 1918–19 British police strikes in the United Kingdom resulted in the British government putting before Parliament its proposals for a Police Act, which established the Police Federation of England and Wales and Scottish Police Federation as the representative bodies for the police. The Act barred police from belonging to a trade union or affiliating with any other trade union body. This Act, drafted and passed into law, was passed in response to the formation of the National Union of Police and Prison Officers (NUPPO). A successful police strike in 1918 and another strike in June 1919 led to the suppression of the union by the government. On 1 August 1919, the Police Act 1919 passed into law. Only token opposition from a minority of Labour Members of Parliament was voiced in Parliament.
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The Police Act 1996 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which defined the current police areas in England and Wales, constituted police authorities for those areas, and set out the relationship between the Home Secretary and the English and Welsh territorial police forces. It replaced the Police and Magistrates' Courts Act 1994, which in turn had replaced the Police Act 1964.
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The Sheehy Inquiry, officially, the Inquiry into Police Responsibilities and Rewards, was commissioned in 1992 by the United Kingdom's then Home Secretary, Kenneth Clarke, to "examine the rank structure, remuneration, and conditions of service of the police service of England and Wales, in Scotland and in Northern Ireland," and to present recommendations if found necessary. The inquiry committee was chaired by Sir Patrick Sheehy, with members John Bullock, Professors Eric Caines and Colin Campbell, and Sir Paul Fox among the committee. The committee released its report, commonly known as the Sheehy Report, in 1993, with recommendations for significant restructuring of ranks and remuneration, detailed in seven sections in over 200 pages.
The 1931 New Year Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the United Kingdom and British Empire. They were announced on 30 December 1930.
The New Year Honours 1922 were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by members of the British Empire. They were published on 30 December 1921.
The New Year Honours 1921 were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by members of the British Empire. They were published on 31 December 1920.
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The Police Superintendents’ Association is the sole representative body for police officers in the ranks of superintendent and chief superintendent in England and Wales. Its members are the senior operational leaders in policing in the 43 Home Office forces, British Transport Police, Civil Nuclear Constabulary, Isle of Man Constabulary, the Bermuda Police Service, Royal Gibraltar Police and the Gibraltar Defence Police. The association's headquarters are in Pangbourne, Berkshire.
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The 1928 New Year Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the United Kingdom and British Empire. They were announced on 30 December 1927.
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