£100,000 crime tsars set for pay rise

( ... as they demand more ) council t ax for policing

CRIME tsars are in line for a pay rise – despite insisting that council tax bills must rise to pay for frontline policing.

Police and Crime Commissioners already earn up to £100,000 a year, but Home Secretary Amber Rudd has quietly ordered an official review that could see them paid even more.

They are likely to receive a pay boost as their salaries have been fixed since they were first controversially elected in 2012. Since t hen t hey have been granted more powers, including overseeing fire brigades.

But the move will provoke anger as PCCs are increasing their levy on council tax bills by up to eight per cent this year, on the grounds that they are not getting enough money from the Home Office to keep the streets safe. The number of police offi- cers is at its lowest level since 1985 despite a rising population, while latest figures show that violent crime rose by 20 per cent in the past year.

Last night, Lib Dem leader Sir Vince Cable told The Mail on Sunday :‘ It is high time the entire system of Police and Crime Commissioners, which sees people elected with a pitiful mandate, was scrapped so we can divert the cash towards policing.’

Elected crime tsars were introduced in England and Wales by the then Home Secretary, Theresa May, as a way to make chief constables more accountable to the public, but the first polls in 2012 saw record low voter turnout of 15 per cent. The first appointees then became notorious for their poor decisions and wasteful spending.

This year, PCCs have been given greater freedom to increase the part of council tax they control – known as the policing precept – and almost all have announced they will seek the maximum rise of £12 a year for a typical Band D home. At the same time almost all councils are putting up their bills.

Crime tsars insist the hike is necessary because the Home Office has frozen the core grant for policing at a time when pressures on forces are mounting.

At the same time, however, the Home Office has indicated it is willing to sanction pay rises for PCCs themselves. Home Secretary Miss Rudd has written to the Senior Salaries Review Body to ask it to ‘conduct a review’.

Currently PCCs are paid according to force size, from £65,000 a year in smaller, rural constabularies to £100,000 in the larger urban forces.

Any pay rise for PCCs will add to the anger felt by rank-and-file officers. Calum Macleod, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: ‘The latest announcement that the Salaries Review Body is to consider whether PCCs deserve a pay rise sends an appalling message to our frontline officers.’