Overtime ‘helps put food on table for officers’

SOME POLICE officers could not put “food on the table” without working overtime, the head of the organisation that represents rank and file officers has said.

John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, called for “fair” pay from the next government at an event to celebrate the body’s centenary.

He said there is a “postcode lottery” in how forces are funded, branding the formula “grossly unfair”.

In a speech at the event in Westminster’s Central Hall, attended by Home Secretary Priti Patel yesterday, Mr Apter said: “We have massive increasing demands on policing and our members, to a level which is simply unsustainable.

“And only this week we published the results of the latest pay and morale survey which showed that 75 per cent of police officers say they are worse off financially this year than last. There are some officers who, if it wasn’t for overtime, simply wouldn’t be able to put food on the table or pay their bills. This is shameful. This is wrong and it must change.”

Mr Apter, whose organisation represents around 120,000 officers, said the Government had listened and acted in recent months.

“But whatever the future holds – whoever the Government may be – we will work with them. We simply have to. We cannot go back to how it was,” he warned. “That is not in the interests of those we represent, or those we serve.”

On Monday The Yorkshire Post reported that the Police Federation believed more than half of police officers worry about money almost every day and many are experiencing financial difficulties.