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.
Posts
