FAQs

Overtime & Duties
Annual Leave
Expenses & Claims
Public Holidays

Overtime & Duties

I remained at work at the end of my shift, what can I claim?

If you work overtime after hours on your scheduled tour of duty, and you were not informed of the overtime prior to the commencement of this tour of duty, it is classed as unplanned overtime and you cannot claim overtime for the first 30 minutes worked.

For example, if your tour of duty is 14:00 – 22:00, you cannot claim overtime until 22:30. Any overtime you claim after that is at time and a third, for payment, or if you wish to claim time off, for the overtime, then for every completed 15 minutes, you are entitled to claim 1 unit and for every 3 units you work, you are given 1 bonus unit.

If you work unplanned overtime on 4 occasions during the same week then on the 5th and any other occasion in which you may have to work overtime you no longer lose the first half hour for the rest of that week.

If you were asked to work overtime prior to the commencement of your tour of duty this is planned overtime and you do not lose the first half an hour when calculating how much time you have worked over.

If you are required to work over following a night shift and this is going into you rest day, you are entitled to claim up to 1 hour overtime at time & a half. After that hour if you still have to remain on duty you will get a minimum of 4 hours at time & a half even if the period of overtime is less than 4 hours. You do not lose the 1st half an hour.

If you were given less than 15 days notice (not counting the day you were asked or the day you are to work) you are entitled to payment or time off (your choice) at the rate of time and a half.

If you were given more than 15 days notice you are entitled to a re-rostered rest day, which should be allocated onto your DMS within 4 days of the cancellation being made.

Working on a bank holiday officers of the rank of constable or sergeant, will always be paid at the rate of DOUBLE TIME, whether for payment or time off. This also applies to part time working officers.

When a bank holiday falls on a rest day, the bank holiday always take precedence, the rest day MUST be re-rostered to another day (after consultation with the officer) The re-rostered day is a rest day and all conditions applying to rest days apply to it. Should the officer then be required to work on the bank holiday he/she would get paid or have time off at the rate of double time, (officers choice).

If an officer is informed that he/she is required to work on a bank holiday with less than 8 days notice, then in addition to getting paid double time for the bank holiday (or time off) he/she would also be entitled to another day off which shall be notified to him/her within 4 days of notification of the requirement and which shall be treated for the purpose of this regulation as a bank holiday.

The authority of an Assistant Chief Constable is required for officers to work on a PHL with less than 8 days notice.

Where the time at which an officer is due to commence a rostered tour of duty is brought forward without due notice (less than 8 hours) so that they are required to commence duty on a day in which they have already completed their normal period of duty. The time for which they are on duty before the rostered commencement time shall be reckonable as overtime and also taken into account as part of that tour of duty. The force day commences at 7am.

If you are given more than 8 hours notice of the duty change then your working day merely starts at the new time. If the time you are brought on at is before 7am following a period of rest days then you will be eligible to claim rest day over time (minimum 4 hours).

For example you are asked to start at 5am for a warrant but that day is your rest day, you would be entitled to a minimum of 4 hours compensation despite only being scaled for 2 hours on your rest day (5am-7am).

The Chief Officer shall cause to be published duty rosters for members of his/her force after full consultation with the Joint Branch Board at intervals not exceeding 12 months and not later than 1 month before the date in which it starts. Each roster will set out for at least 3 months the following:

  • His/her rest days
  • Public Holidays in which he/she may be required to do duty on
  • The time at which his/her scheduled daily period of duty begins & end
  • For part time members his/her free days
  • Intervals of at least 11 hours between the end and the beginning of the next shift
  • An interval between rostered rest days not exceeding 7 days

Where alterations are made to an annual duty roster after its publication these changes must arise from the exigencies of duty (unless they are made at the officer’s own request or have otherwise been agreed with the joint branch board).

The term exigencies of duty, should be interpreted as relating to situations where a pressing demand, need or requirement is perceived that is not reasonably avoidable and necessitates a change of roster. In this context the word, pressing, relates to the expected situation at the time when the duty is to be performed rather than the time when the duty roster is changed, ie the reasons for a change may be known many months in advance but still be pressing.

Changes to rosters should only be made after full consideration of welfare, operational and practical circumstances rather than purely on financial grounds. Because rosters are produced annually a number of unforeseen reasons for changes may subsequently arise. It is clearly not possible to produce an exhaustive list of all of the potential reasons, which may necessitate changes. However, by way of example, unforeseen public order situations, court attendance and essential training would justify changes to rostered duties. An officer should be told as soon as the requirement for the change is known and at the latest, by midnight on the calendar day before the changed period of duty commences.

When an officers rest day is cancelled in anticipation of an operational need for which in any event he/she is not required to attend for duty:

  • Where the officer is told with more than 7 days (and less than 15 days) notice that he/she will not after all be required to work on his/her rest day, he/she will take the rest day with no compensation.
  • Where the officer is given less than 8 days notice he/she can choose between taking the rest day with no compensation or working on the rest day with compensation in accordance with police regulations.

Annual Leave

What annual leave am I entitled to?

The annual leave year is 1 April – 31 March. Entitlements (expressed in 8 hour days) will be as shown below:

Length Of Service

 

 

Less than 2 years’ relevant service 22
2 or more years’ relevant service 25
5 or more years’ relevant service 25
10 or more years’ relevant service 27
15 or more years’ relevant service 28
20 or more years’ relevant service 30

Yes. Leave can be taken in blocks, as single days or in half days, subject to the exigencies of duty. If taken as a half day, you are not entitled to a meal break.

Regulations state that subject to exigencies of duty you are entitled to:

– carry over no more than 5 additional days (40 hours) of annual leave into the following years annual leave period.
– bring forward 5 additional days (40 hours) leave to be taken in the final month of the leave year (ie for use in March)

All requests for approval to bring forward annual leave must be submitted in the form of a report outlining the circumstances to the RMU Inspector.

Recall from Annual Leave (Reg 33) Annex O Determination

A member is entitled to compensation where a recall from Annual Leave occurs.

Your entitlement under this regulation is now:

  • 2 days’ leave for each of the first two days recalled OR if you elect,
  • 1 days’ leave plus 1 day at double time payment for each of the first two days.

if you are recalled for more than two days, the third and any subsequent day is compensated at the rate of:

  • 5 days leave for each day OR if you elect
  • 1 days’ leave plus .5 days’ pay at double time in lieu of each such day

This applies to any period of absence of 3 or more days, where at least one day is shown as annual leave and the other days, if not annual leave, are rostered rest days, days taken as time off in lieu of overtime, public holidays (or days taken in lieu of such) monthly leave or any combination.

A day’s pay to be defined as 8 hours, or the equivalent in respect of officers working alternative shift systems or part time.  

From 1st May, 2014, if you are required to work on a rest day or free day which is attached to a period of annual leave, that day will be treated as if it were an annual leave day (see above for annual leave remuneration). For this to apply, the period of absence must be of 5 days or more with at least 1 of those days being an annual leave day. You can see the PNB agreement for this here. 

A member cannot be sick and on leave at the same time. Any annual leave falling within a period of sickness can be cancelled and taken at a later date as long as evidence can be provided of the sickness such as a Doctors fit note.

However, you can take a break away as long as you are contactable and your journey or break is not detrimental to your recovery. You should inform your supervisor if you wish to go away whilst on sickness absence.

You should contact your Fed rep and try to negotiate a means of progressing the case without the need for you to attend or adjourn the case to a suitable date. Ultimately, though, if warned for court you have to attend. In such circumstances, if going on holiday, the Federation travel insurance will normally cover you for the cancellation or curtailment of your holiday, as long as you were not aware of the court date when the holiday was booked.

Officers attending court who are recalled from annual leave, or unexpectedly recalled from other leave, will be compensated in respect of expenses incurred as follows:-

  • Any necessary travelling expenses incurred in attending court and returning to the holiday place;
  • Any refreshment or subsistence allowance to which the officer may become entitled by reason of his attendance at Court;
  • Expenditure over and above the allowance covered by the above, and within the limits of Police Regulations, necessarily incurred on food and lodgings because the officer’s home is closed.

Expenses & Claims

When can I claim refreshments?

The Force is under no obligation to provide officers with food at any time. It does so currently in lieu of a claim being made and usually exceeds the amount that they would have to spend on a claim.

There are some legal issues around the storage of food during hot weather that have to be considered by the Force and sometimes food cannot be provided if it is unable to meet the requirements of safe storage.

The main crux of an officer’s entitlement is laid out in the regulation and has to satisfy certain criterion. Firstly the officer has to be necessarily prevented from taking their meal in the normal manner. So if they normally bring a pack up and keep it in the fridge and they are now deployed to be in a van and stand on a cordon for eight hours, then they cannot do this and are thus ‘prevented’ so they can claim for the provision of food. i.e. purchase it just prior to consumption from a garage or shop at which point they may make a claim. BUT… they can only claim for what they spend above what their meal would normally cost. Any cost has to be a) necessary, b) reasonable and c) additional to what the officer might otherwise have incurred and d) receipted. Under no circumstances can an officer claim back costs relating to the purchase of alcohol.

a. Necessary
In normal circumstances it should NOT be regarded as necessarily incurred:

  • During an employees normal tour of duty unless you were unable to take your meal in your normal manner
  • Where a meal/packed lunch/meal voucher is provided (regardless of whether the individual chooses to take advantage of this provision)
  • When a rest day is worked (since additional expenditure should not be incurred provided reasonable notice is given in such instances)
  • Simply because there are no canteen facilities at a particular location, or you are working away from your normal base (unless you are unable to take your meal in your normal manner)
  • Merely because it is a public holiday; if this is a normal working day as per your roster, additional expenditure would not normally be incurred
  • Exceptions to normal circumstances will be at the discretion of authorising officers (who will have local knowledge of circumstances)

b. Reasonable
Whilst the principle decision of allowances has been discontinued, the question of what is reasonable remains. The question ‘reasonableness’ will depend on individual circumstances. We would expect the reasonable threshold to be different for an officer working normal overtime to that of an officer on a residential course where food is not provided.

If the overnight accommodation booked includes meals then clearly this must be taken into account when you claim. Whether food is provided or not the officer is still entitled to claim overnight allowance.

c. Additional to what the officer might otherwise have incurred
For expenditure to be seen as ‘Additional’ it will be necessary for the officer to certify that their normal arrangements for eating were affected by the nature of their duties. This should allow payroll to understand the reason why the expenditure was incurred as additional. Being away from the normal place of duty i.e. on a training course, does not necessarily prevent you taking your meal in your normal manner.

d. Backed by Receipts
Receipts need to match the claim in terms of the date and the nature of the meal/food provided. Indecipherable receipts will not be accepted. The submission for inappropriate/incorrect receipts will be treated as potential fraud and will be dealt with by Professional Standards in accordance with Force policy.

It is appreciated that there may be instances where receipts cannot be obtained, for example from vending machines, or when it would be operationally inappropriate to request a receipt, (this will be the exception rather than the rule), in such instances an explanation should be provided on the form and authorised by the line manager.

The officer is entitled to make that claim and the forces obligation is to allow officers time and the access to purchase food. Please see the force business travel policy for a wider interpretation of the allowance.

If the officer is required to stay on duty longer than their rostered shift for that day then they can claim for the entirety of the cost of any meal they then purchase. Any claims that are within 5 miles of the normal place of duty are taxable.

Officers are entitled to (by law) 20 minutes break in an 8 hour tour however Regs states this is 45 minutes for an 8 hour shift, up to an hour for a 12 hour shift.

A planned operation is not an exigency so they are entitled to the 20 minutes whatever happens. Driving or travelling to an event is not a break. The WTR do not allow for this to be taken at the end of a shift. (Reg 12 WTR).

It must be reiterated to officers that they must ensure honesty and integrity in this claim and the force must allow officers sufficient time to rest and eat.

The provision of water throughout the day where officers and staff are away from a building comes under the H&S codes of practice and is the sole responsibility of the force.

We would expect any MA deployment that required officers to stay away to have pre arranged accommodation and meals. Whilst we cannot guarantee the standard any issues with this should be raised immediately with the Mutual Aid Liaison Officer.

Away from home/held in reserve allowance (£50 per night)

This allowance is payable if an officer is ‘held in reserve’. This is when an officer is serving away from their usual place of duty and is required to stay in a specific location in order to be ready for immediate deployment. This does not include being away from a normal place of duty for a training course or carrying out routine enquiries.

This allowance is normally agreed with the host force prior to deployment and the circumstances for claiming it can differ. If you are scaled for a MA deployment and this hasn’t been discussed please raise it with your MALO or supervisor pre deployment and/or seek Federation advice.

Hardship allowance (£30 per night)

This allowance is payable where an officer is held in reserve (see above) and is not provided with proper accommodation. The definition of proper accommodation is single occupancy bedroom with en-suite facilities, however this has been paid where the definition has been met however the accommodation is of such a sub standard quality that hardship has been agreed.

Other Claims

Any incidental expenses that occur on a deployment that are reasonable, necessary and receipted may be claimed in some circumstances. Examples of this are where an officer has not been provided a meal that is suitable for their dietary requirements/allergies etc and has had to purchase their own.

We would expect any residential course to have meals provided. However a further incidental allowance can be claimed at a daily rate per night of £4.43 per night claimable up to a maximum of £17.77 per week, where an officer attends a 5 day training course from Monday to Friday which results in an entitlement to claim 4 nights. Where an individual also has to stay overnight the preceding Sunday night and is therefore away from home for five nights, the maximum that can be claimed is £22.15.

On call means that during a period between two tours of duty you are required to be contactable and deployable to recall to duty immediately. There is an expectation that you are physically fit and able to be recalled at short notice. This differs from the general recall to duty that all officers can be subject to. The Federation view is that officers should not be expected to be on call on a rest day which is a 24hr period free from work.

The on-call allowance was introduced following the Windsor recommendations and came in force from 1st April 2013 and is not retrospective. All Federated ranks are covered by this allowance.

An officer “shall receive an allowance of £25 in respect of each day on which he spends any time on-call” – para 13) Annex U to determination for Reg 34.

It should be remembered that on-call is entirely voluntary and is designed to be used where it is not practicable or reasonable to have it covered by a 24/7 shift pattern.

If you feel that you perform on-call but do not receive the allowance please contact your local Reps

Officers and eligible to be reimbursed for work related mileage outside of commuting to and from home to a permanent place of work.

For journeys to and from home to another place of work other than your permanent place of work, or where the journey is in a different direction and is therefore substantially not the same as your normal commute to your permanent place of work, mileage can be claimed in full. There is no requirement to deduct your normal home to work mileage. 

Officers may claim travel expenses to their normal place of work when required to perform the normal daily period of duty or rostered shift in more than one tour and travels home between tours, or if recalled to duty between two tours of duty subject to any reasonable limit. 

Tax Allowance – Police Officers

Most police officers are entitled to claim a special flat rate tax allowance of £140 every year. If you pay tax at the basic rate (20%), this means you will save £28 per year by claiming this relief. You can claim this back for the last 4 years, so you could potentially receive a cash rebate of £112 if you have not claimed before. The following ranks are eligible to apply:

  • Constable
  • Sergeant
  • Inspector
  • Chief Inspector

All police officers in the above ranks can apply. This allowance is not just for uniformed officers – you can claim this allowance irrespective of whether you wear a uniform.

Police Federation Subscriptions

If you’re a member of the Police Federation of England & Wales (PolFed), you are entitled to claim tax relief on your monthly subscription (currently £24.31/month). The tax saving per year works out at around £58, meaning you can claim a tax rebate of over £200 if you have subscribed for the last 4 years and not submitted a claim!

If you are paying the reduced Federation Subscription rates of £12.16 your rebate will be pro-rata (50% / 25%)

The below are the subscription rates since 2010.

£17.55 from 1st January 2010                   £21.58 from 1st January 2011

£21.58 from 1st January 2012                   £21.58 from 1st January 2013

£21.58 from 1st January 2014                   £21.58 from 1st January 2015

£21.58 from 1st January 2016                   £21.58 from 1st January 2017

£21.58 from 1st January 2018                    £21.58 from 1st January 2019

£21.58 from 1st September 2020              £24.31 from 1st January 2023

Public Holidays

What does the Determination on Public Holidays say?

The new Determination states that if you wish to substitute a statutory Public Holiday, other than Christmas Day, for another day, you can, with the approval of the Chief Officer, choose another day as your Public Holiday. In other words, you can swap one of the days you currently think of as a Public Holiday (such as Boxing Day) and take that Public Holiday on another day in the year of your choosing.

You can apply for any other day but the Determination states that approval for that substitution must be given by the Chief Officer. Approval can only be refused if subject to the exigencies of duty. You’re likely to find that if you ask for a day which is a known day of exceptional demand, such as New Year’s Eve, approval may be justifiably rejected.

In that case, your statutory Public Holidays will be retained, ie those days you currently consider to be Public Holidays. Chief Officer approval is not required for the statutory Public Holidays.

Yes. If you are required to work a Public Holiday, you will be paid double time for the hours you’ve worked. That applies to both statutory Public Holidays and, if applicable, substituted Public Holidays.

If you have chosen to substitute one or more statutory Public Holidays, that day would then become a normal working day so you would it at flat rate. Therefore, if you chose to substitute Boxing Day for, say, 15th January, you would work Boxing Day at flat rate and either take 15th January off or, if required to work it, be paid at double time for that day.

No. If you are required to work a Public Holiday, you will be paid at a rate of double time.s the requirement for the change is known and at the latest, by midnight on the calendar day before the changed period of duty commences.

No. In fact, as Chief Officer approval has to be given, it is quite likely that sufficient resilience will be available on that day to allow you to take your entitlement of a day’s leave on that day. If, however, you are required to work it, you will get paid double time

You must nominate your substituted Public Holidays by 31st January.

Each chief officer must prescribe:

  • How the notice of a proposed substitution should be made;
  • The time within which an officer will be notified of the chief officer’s decision on the proposed substitution; and
  • The arrangements for proposing a different date, if the officer wishes to do so, where exigencies of duty prevent a chief officer approving a proposed substitution.

No. This change applies only to Constables and Sergeants. Inspectors and above cannot nominate days other than statutory days. If they are required to work a Public Holiday, they are entitled to take another day off within the following 12 months.

Yes. That just needs to be submitted for approval as above.

Yes but approval will still be subject to the exigencies of duty. If there’s insufficient resilience available for any of those days then approval may be declined. This shouldn’t be a simple case of the manager not liking you having that time off though. It must be a policing imperative to activate the exigency of duty clause.

A public holiday cannot fall on a rest day. They are two separate types of duty. Therefore, where a statutory PH falls on what would otherwise have been your rest day, that rest day should be reallocated on that same rota. A simple example is that an 8-hour officer should have 8 rest days per month. If a PH appears within that rota, the officer should still get 8 rest days showing regardless of other considerations.

Unfortunately, the force has refused to apply the same pragmatic approach to 10-hour and 12-hour VSA officers. You will only be able to put 8 hours onto your overtime card (as you cannot take a full rest day automatically as you cannot re-roster the full tour of duty). That 8 hours must be taken off, by 12-hour officers, within 112 days of the end of the rota on which it occurs, ie 2 rotas after the current one. 10-hour officers will need to take the time off within 3 months of the date of the PH.

Although Winsor referred to officers being able to substitute 7 public holidays, the Determination only refers to substituting public holidays and no specific number of PHs is mentioned. You will therefore be able to substitute however many public holidays there are in that year.

The actual wording is:

“ substitute a day which is not a public holiday within the meaning of regulation 3(1) of the Police Regulations 2003 for any day which is such a public holiday, with the exception of Christmas Day.”

Regulation 3(1) defines a public holiday as:

“public holiday” means Christmas Day, the 26th December (if it falls on a Saturday or a Sunday), the 1st January (if it so falls), Good Friday or a bank holiday;”

Police officers have always been able to claim another public holiday when one falls on the weekend as the bank holiday will then reappear on the first weekday of that week and the below Home Office circular outlines that entitlement.

HOME OFFICE CIRCULAR 63/1987: PUBLIC HOLIDAYS
Regulation 4(1) provides that, for the purposes of the Police Regulations, 26 December or 1 January are to be treated as public holidays where either of those dates falls on a Saturday or a Sunday.

The Determination does not alter this and it is, therefore, still possible for officers to have, potentially, 6 public holidays over a festive season where Christmas Day falls on a Saturday, Boxing Day on a Sunday etc.