VOTE ON THE POLICE STAFF PAY OFFER 2025
Police staff members in England and Cymru, whose pay is set by the Police Staff Council, are invited to vote on the following pay offer for 2025. The digital ballot opens on 6 October and closes at 12 noon on 24 October. Details of how to vote can be found below.
At pay talks on 22 September, the Police Employers (APCC, NPCC and Home Office) made the following full and final pay offer to police staff in England and Cymru for 2025:
- 4.2% increase on all pay points (you can view the proposed pay scale here*)
- 4.2% increase in standby allowance from £36.13 to £37.65
- £10 increase in the Overnight Away from Home Allowance from £50 to £60
- Harmonisation of the three existing essential car user engine-size mileage rates to a single rate of £1,239 (being the existing highest engine-size rate)
It was of great disappointment to the trade union negotiators that the Employers were unable to respond positively to those parts of the trade unions’ pay claim seeking a £15/hour minimum salary for police staff, or parity with police officers’ annual leave entitlement of 25 days on appointment.
The Employers rejected these elements of our claim on the basis of what they said was affordability. This is incredibly disappointing given the relatively small number of police staff on the lowest pay points. The gap that has opened between the annual leave on appointment for police staff and police officers is very unfair and simply cannot be justified.
(*The numbering of pay points varies force by force, but the value of the pay points should be as shown)
WHY WE CAN’T RECOMMEND THE OFFER
UNISON’s Police Staff Committee is unable to recommend the offer because it fails to address low pay or annual leave. Instead, we are putting the offer out on a neutral basis and leaving it to members to make up their own minds, about whether to vote to accept or reject the offer. UNITE and GMB’s police committees have agreed the same line and will be consulting their members on a similar basis.
It is unacceptable that police forces have turned down the opportunity to raise the lowest paid police staff to £15/hour. Police Scotland already pays more than this for their junior police staff jobs north of the border. Earlier this year, the Police Staff Council had to delete the lowest pay point in England and Cymru because otherwise it would have been overtaken by the National Living Wage. We suspect that the same will happen again in 2026. That is why we hoped the Employers would have offered us something to tackle low pay.
When it comes to annual leave, the minimum entitlement for police staff is 24 days on appointment and 29 days after 5 years’ service. Some forces award more annual leave to police staff than this, but many don’t. This means that, in forces that don’t award more than 24 days leave on appointment, police staff now get less annual leave than their police officer colleagues. And that is just not fair.
VOTE ON THE PAY OFFER
You can now vote on the pay offer set out above. You have two choices:
- Vote to accept the pay offer
- Vote to reject the pay offer and indicate your willingness to vote for industrial action to seek to improve it
For the reasons set out above, UNISON is not recommending how you should vote, but we can confirm that the above pay offer is the best that is achievable by negotiation. To improve the pay offer would require serious and sustained industrial action up to and including strike action.
UNISON’s digital ballot opens on Monday 6 October and closes at 12 noon on Friday 24 October.
HOW TO VOTE
You will receive a link via an e-mail to vote on the 2025 pay offer. We are sending this to you because we believe you are employed on Police Staff Council Terms and conditions, or that your pay is directly linked to those terms and conditions. If that is not the case, please do not vote. If you are unsure if your pay is governed by these terms and conditions, please check with your branch.
Please use the link in the e-mail you receive from UNISON to cast your vote on the pay offer. Please do not forward the e-mail or the voting link to colleagues – it is for your use only.
Emails with voting links will be sent out on Monday 6 October and all members with a current e-mail address on the UNISON membership system should have received their email by the end of that day.
What if I don’t receive an email with a voting link?
If you haven’t received your email by 7 October you can vote here.
You will be following a general voting link so you will need to verify your membership details to access your personalised vote online. To do this you will need your UNISON membership number or your National Insurance number as well as your date of birth and surname as recorded on the UNISON membership system.
What if I still can’t vote?
If you are still having problems voting then please call the UNISON Direct number: 0800 0 857 857. UNISON Direct colleagues will be able to help members check their membership details and access their vote.
This is a secret ballot, and you cannot be identified by voting.
By voting you give permission for UNISON to publish the overall result of the ballot.
If you have any questions on the pay offer, please speak to your local UNISON branch in the first instance.