Privatisation

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Conference
Police Service Group Conference 2003
Date
21 February 2003
Decision
Carried as Amended

Conference notes with concern the creeping privatisation of police services through PFI, Best Value, outsourcing and the increasing use of private agency staff.

Conference notes in particular:

1)the fragmentation of police services that this privatisation is causing, particularly when outsourcing takes place at BCU level;

2)the lack of Best Value methodology being applied to some police service privatisations, and the apparent failure of police authorities to apply the 4 C’s to such privatisation;

3)the lack of knowledge on the part of many police employers about TUPE and pensions protections post – transfer;

4)the failure of some major private contractors now working in the police service to open dialogue with UNISON at a national level in relation to recognition;

5)the major national contract let by ACPO to deliver agency staffing to police forces throughout England and Wales.

Conference reiterates UNISON’s determination to resist the privatisation of police services and instructs the Executive to:

a)redouble efforts to secure statutory Home Office guidance to end the two-tier workforce that usually follows privatisation and to examine the protocol agreed between the STUC and the Scottish Executive in relation to ending the two tier workforce in PFI schemes in Scotland;

b)encourage branches to report all privatisation activity to UNISON’s Privatisation Research Unit, thereby enabling a national strategic approach to all future privatisations;

c)ensure that the Police Reform Act opportunity for police forces to employ escort officers with new powers is not granted automatically to the Prisoner Escort Contracting Service – the consortium of private prison escort providers.