We were contacted by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism a few months ago advising that they were preparing this program for Panorama and they were specifically interested in the pay and bonus structures of the Chief Police Officers.
Readers will not be surprised to learn that Chief Officers feature frequently in the highest paid Rich List the public sector. What should be born in mind though, is that theis program was completed before the 2.5% pay rise that the Chiefs too have enjoyed since September 1st. So even the astronomic figures quoted are understated.
We have shown the TOP 10 HIGHEST PAID police personnel above and would ask the question "Are they really worth this much?" Furthermore, is it right that these highly paid, self serving ACPO ranked officers should have a total say in the pay and conditions of the rank and file?
In a report we will publish over the coming weeks, we will show that even based on basic salary:-
14 Chief Officers are paid a basic of £150,000+
6 Chief Officers are paid between £140 to £150,000 per annum
26 Chief Officers (inc Met Deputies) are paid between £130 and £140,000 per annum.
More than 38,000 government workers are paid over £100,000
In the most detailed analysis of government salaries ever undertaken, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals just how many high earners there are at the top.
More than 38,000 government workers are paid over £100,000, and 9,187 earn more than the Prime Minister (£142,500), according to the Bureau’s public sector pay database.
The findings put an end to the myth that the public sector worker trades high pay for job security and gold plated pensions.
The revelations will also come as a shock to central government, whose best estimate puts the number of high-earners at just 25,000, a miscalculation of more than 50 per cent.
The data also reveals that despite years of legislation and campaigning aimed at achieving gender equality in the public sector, the glass ceiling has hardly cracked, let alone, been smashed.
Among public sector workers paid more than £100,000 only one in five are women.
The Public Sector
The scale and scope of the public sector has exploded since Labour came to power in 1997. Then it employed 5.2 million people, but over the last 13 years that has jumped to 6.1 million.
Pay has ballooned too. The government’s wage bill has jumped 29 per cent in five years to hit £157.7bn. At the top the figures are still more dramatic. The pay for the highest three per cent of public sector jobs has risen by a massive 64 per cent in the past decade.
As the government grapples to restore the country’s battered public finances, it is the public sector that will bear the brunt of the cuts. Already the government is talking of stemming public pay, with pay freezes and cuts to bonus payments.
But critics fear that most of the cost cutting will be made at grassroots level rather than among those at the top – and yet according to this new data Britain’s highest paid public servants cost the country nearly £5bn a year.
According to Cabinet Office Minister Sir Frances Maude: “You don’t need to pay stupendous amounts to get good people. You can square the circle of having really good people not on telephone number salaries and massive built in bonuses. That public service ethos is very important.”
Every sector is represented from fire fighters to police chiefs, army bosses to teachers, doctors, civil servants and quango directors, regulators and council heads, with many sectors paying hundreds, if not thousands of staff more than the £142,500 paid to their ultimate boss, the Prime Minister. The National Health Service (NHS) alone pays nearly 6,500 employees more than David Cameron.
The prime minister and his cabinet took the 5% pay cut when they formed the government at a time of record deficits and a sluggish economy.
In collaboration with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Panorama requested pay details from most of the UK's publicly funded organisations, including local authorities, schools, universities, the BBC, the NHS and the government agencies known as quangos.
When the Government start applying the fiscal scalpel to policing, they should start at the top.
THERE ARE TOO MANY CHIEFS. MANY OF THEM ARE PAID TOO MUCH.
THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH INDIANS AT THE FRONTLINE OF POLICING.
THESE ARE FUNDAMENTAL BASICS. THE GOVERNMENT MUST REVERSE THIS PROFLIGATE TREND IF THERE IS TO BE ANY HOPE OF RESTORING FAITH IN THE SERVICE, MORALE IN THE TROOPS AND CONFIDENCE IN THE LEADERSHIP OF THE SERVICE.
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9 comments:
Missed the show but was already on the mark with the issue. I posted last week on the self same subject under "Peanuts & Monkeys" http://bankbabble.wordpress.com/2010/09/16/monkey-nuts/
As an addendum to this post, I would like to add the words of MrG from bankside babble, who wrote a related article.
http://bankbabble.wordpress.com/2010/09/16/monkey-nuts/
"How many of the high-flying, highly paid police executives are actually suitable or (more importantly) competent, to effectively carry out the role of management in the police service? Perhaps the time is right to actually start listening to the monkeys on the production line; surely their experience must count for something? Maybe they could even be given a chance at actually managing the service?
They couldn’t possibly do any worse than those certificated monkeys and their hastily developed and invented experience at the top, could they?"
Posted in rssponse to the mirror article on the forum pages at police oracle by "wee man"
On the wider issue of public sector pay, don't think anybody in the public sector should earn more than the Prime Minister, similar to federal law in the US. It can't be right that the person who runs a local authority earns twice what the PM takes home.
But on the Police specifically, a few things jump out of this list.
Firstly, Sir Hugh "Secret Document" Orde is on £200K plus benefits and he's no longer a Chief Constable other than in name. If he's worth that money then ACPO can pay it.
Further, the Met are paying out £1.4M on this list alone. That would pay for a lot of kit or diversity seminars. And Alison Beaton's on £190K! I'm sure she's very talented but she can't even be kicked out to do a bit of public order on a weekend. At least the ones with warrant cards can, technically anyway.
It's the "more than 38,000" public workers earning in excess of £100K who make the rest of us such easy fodder for the press.
And we're having to deal with the Labour job creation scheme that has become the public sector. Our Force, for one, is riddled with highly paid non-warranted workers who do nothing to make society safer or my job easier.
From the Oracle form by garage sergeant ...
Seven of those top 10 cops are in the Met and amount to a whopping £1330.256.00 per annum !! In my humble opinion, I have to say this is excessive in the extreme...
From oracle forum by "only so much"
How many of those roles are actually needed and not just someone doing stuff to justify their existence?
We have a 'Customer Service Manager' (which is wrong in itself - they are still MOP not customers = we're not bloody Tescos ) who gets aropund £45k a year for arranging surveys and community calls to check satisfaction levels.
If this job went tomorrow nobody would notice - but they might notice the extra Pc this would provide, pay, training and kit.
From Oracle forum by "Stan Still"
Having recent experience of the quality of decision-making by highly paid senior officers, I think we are due a rebate!
Penbwtch from the oracle forum ...
Originally posted by Wee Man
Further, the Met are paying out £1.4M on this list alone. That would pay for a lot of kit or diversity seminars. And Alison Beaton's on £190K! I'm sure she's very talented but she can't even be kicked out to do a bit of public order on a weekend. At least the ones with warrant cards can, technically anyway.
Not in the case of the Met, I'm afraid. Once they get to Deputy Assistant Commissioner rank they lose their warrant card and are given a silver token to show their authority. They become JPs instead of Police Officers.
Maverick22 from the oracle forum ...
I cannot see how the top ten on that list can possibly justify their salaries,
particularly the salary of Stephenson, whose money is almost twice the going rate for a Chief Constable of a County Force.(except in one or two cases) Stephenson doesn't have twice the responsibility of any other CC, he has 37 deputy or assistant CC's to share responsibility, whereas County Chiefs have 1 dep and at most 4 ACC's.
Zed Carr from the Oracle forum ...
Good work Crime Analyst !!
It really is hard to accept what ACPO and the CC's get paid. I find it impossible to give any credence to what Sir Hugh Orde states in the leaked ACPO report regarding our pay and conditions.
He and his super rich friends want to hammer as many nails as possible into the coffin of Police Pay and Conditions, and as quickly as possible.
As for "are they worth it?" - in my opinion, NO. I agree with the previous comment that no one in the public sector should be paid more than the Prime Minister.
I accept they make some big decisions, but they are well stocked up with advisors to assist in that decision making process. The PM, also has many advisors and has to make some much bigger decisions which can affect us all, and even the world economy. That seems more important than giving PC Runofmafeet a stern talking to that he's not wearing his tie in hot weather.
I've no doubt the PM has other money making schemes, so I'm not about to have a whip round for him, but I'm not happy at seeing those salaries of CC's, and having to stand by and watch them decide how to erode my pay and pension, with little effect on their own pay and conditions.
Looking at Crime analysts list, my CC "earns" £12000 a month. I've no idea what he takes home, but it's a lot more than me. Cutting the BH rate is not going to make a huge hole is his pocket, but to many of us, that makes the difference in some months of either being in the red or the black.
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