Police overtime bill soars by £100m in just two years

POLICE sergeants are earning up to 150 per cent extra in overtime pay each year despite solving a lower proportion of crimes.

The overtime bill has soared by £100million in two years, with forces spending more than £1 billion on extra hours since 2020. Last year alone accounted for £412 million, while between 2020 and 2021, the total spend was £311 million.

The basic pay for a sergeant varies from £49,077 to £51,498 but some are being paid 146 per cent more than their average salary in overtime pay.

One sergeant in the Metropolitan Police took home £73,341 last year on top of their basic salary, making a total of at least £122,418 – putting them in the top 2 per cent of earners.

In the same period, just 5.7 per cent of crimes were solved in England and Wales, compared with 15.5 per cent in 2014/15 when Home Office records began. Analysis by The Telegraph in March found police have failed to solve a single burglary in nearly half of all neighbourhoods in England and Wales in the past three years.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman defended the spending, saying officers’ “willingness to go beyond their normal shifts demonstrates their dedication to protecting the public”.

Joanna Marchong, investigations campaign manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Extra hours are draining budgets, yet crimes are going unsolved and victims are going unheard. Taxpayers will be wondering what expensive police overtime is actually delivering.”

A spokesman for the National Police Chiefs’ Council said: “Policing carries significant responsibility to keep the public safe. The majority of overtime cost comes from frontline policing.”

‘Extra hours are draining budgets yet crimes are going unsolved and victims are going unheard’