Forced police retirement ‘agreed’

Forces need to cut wage bills to meet government saving demands

Chief constables from two police forces have been given approval to order their officers to retire as part of cost-cutting measures, the BBC has learned.

North Wales and Strathclyde police authorities have backed the plans and Surrey is being asked to do so.

Fully-sworn officers cannot be made redundant because they are Crown servants and not employees.

The option to use pension rules to force officers to retire early could be challenged in the courts.

The police service needs to cut its wage bill to find savings demanded by the government in the recent Spending Review.

Other than freezing recruitment, the only option is to implement Regulation A19, which is contained in the Police Pensions Regulations 1987.

The measure applies to all police below chief officer rank, regardless of ability or age.

The rule affects those with 30 years service or more. Under the regulations, officers can be “required to retire” if their retention would “not be in the general interests of efficiency”.

But it has been little used in the past and is likely to be strongly resisted by organisations representing police officers.

North Wales and Strathclyde police authorities have approved the use of A19 in recent weeks.

Surrey police are believed to be the first English force to seek to use A19 and their police authority will be asked to authorise the move at a meeting later.

The Home Office has said that central government funding for police in England and Wales would fall by 20% over the course of the Spending Review.

But the total cut may turn out to be only 14%. That’s because police authorities are under pressure to raise the precept, the amount of a force’s budget that comes from council tax.

Officials have not published figures for the number of police and civilian staff job losses – but insist that claims of between 40,000 and 60,000 were wrong.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.