Conference / Speeches

Civil Nuclear Police Federation Conference 2006.

Chief Constable, Deputy Chief Constable, members of the Official Side, Fraternal Delegates and Delegates, on behalf of the Civil Nuclear Police Federation may I welcome you to Southport for annual conference.

I am particularly pleased to welcome Mr. Jim Smith the Deputy Chief Constable to his first meeting with the Federation.

Chief it would be remiss of me if I did not mention the utter despair that you must be feeling following the relegation of Swindon, as a Tranmere supporter I would like to thank Swindon for the six points gained during the season because those points are in fact the difference between staying up and going down, the only consolation is that at least your season ticket may well be cheaper next season.

Sir,

Despite all the optimism following standalone and for the federation a change of venue for conference we are still facing the same old problems.

The item of greatest concern is one that has been hanging around like a bad smell for years that is two-tier policing. This system is currently in operation at the support units and we agree that for these units this is the appropriate method of policing. However once again we understand that the operators have a preferred option for this to be adopted throughout the force. The most disconcerting fact is that once again there is no consultation with the federation, we only hear information second hand and whilst you might say that these are only unsubstantiated rumours, we have a genuine concern when they emanate suggested to an OUC that the idea of what jobs could be civilianised would be better coming from him, and that this plan is going to happen sooner rather than later.

Prior to standalone the Federation accompanied you to a series of open meetings and the question of security guards being brought in was frequently asked, as I recall we both were able to give what was at the time an honest answer and say that to our knowledge there were no plans to replace officers with security guards, this was only just over a year ago if now talks are in progress to cut police posts in favour of security guards, then the Police Authority should come clean and have the courage to inform both the federation and yourself as Chief Constable. It is ironic that these rumours persist despite a recent government report that expresses concerns over the security of nuclear facilities, a report that as I understand it was compiled with the assistance of the Office for Nuclear Security and the DTI. There should be consultation with all concerned parties and the issue of security over cost must be properly discussed. I think that public opinion would lie with accountable policing over any alternative security arrangements.

Openness and transparency have been your bywords for many years; however we are starting to get the feeling that that this does not apply to the Police Authority. Again prior to standalone the Federation and indeed the Staff Associations had an agreement that before the PA meeting we would have a meeting with the Chairman to discuss any outstanding issues that remained unresolved with your self, this system although only in being for a short time appeared to work well. It is therefore disappointing to hear that the current PA Chairman has decided not to continue with this process. (question would this arrangement have come under the TUPI arrangements).

I am grateful to John Foggo from the DTI who provided me with a copy of " The Management Statement" issued to the PA by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry however I was disappointed to see that this has changed from the draft copy CLSG 11 that was provided to the federation. The draft stated that along with representatives of the DTI including OCNS the Federation representatives would be provided with a standing invitation to attend meetings of the PA as observers, but in the final version this invitation to the Federation is omitted. We now know why the Chairman was able to dictate how many Federation representatives can attend and the requirement to attend in uniform, and indeed as to what part of the proceeding we are allowed to observe which in truth is little more that any member of the public at open meetings.

Last year at conference we had an assurance that the criteria for qualifying for a Threshold payment would be reviewed following our protests about the sickness issue. We are now told that the Police Authority will not discuss this matter as they are waiting for the out come of the current negotiations at the PNB regarding Rewarding skills and performance in the Police Service, I will say more about that report later, if however we if can take it that the current criteria is to remain in place then I must warn the official side that we will be forced to take legal advice on behalf of any members who are refused a payment for a one off period of enforced sickness, I am assured by our colleagues in England and Wales that this is the approach that they have taken and that they have been successful in all there claims.

The PNB official side has in its report on Police skills and performance put forwards a whole range of proposals, and for the benefit of those who are not aware of these include shortening of the constables pay scales, the introduction of advanced constable, rewards for the acquisition of accredited skills and qualifications and deployment in designated posts, pay progression not service linked but dependant on skills qualifications and deployment in designated posts, lower starting pay for probationers, sergeants to become managers and pay linked to skills, inspectors rewards to be more closely aligned to those for superintendents and chief inspectors reaching that rank on the acquisition of accredited skills and the phasing out of Special Priority Payments. As we can see the main proposals appear to be a shift away from rank and experienced based pay towards performance skills, qualifications and posts, linking pay towards performance and skills maybe no bad thing but to link pay to qualifications is a different matter. This could lead to a culture of just acquire the qualification and the money will role in regardless of any service delivery. Currently no one in the police service competes for a particular job because there is more money attached to it, if an officer want to apply for a particular role its because he or she has an interest in that particular role.

Officers respond to incidents, sometimes that response as seen during the amber alert will cause disruption to family life, rest days are cancelled private engagements have to be cancelled, yes we all moan about it but nevertheless we get on with job in hand. The police service has been accused of being inflexible but we are not we accept disruption to our life its part of the job all that we want is to be adequately compensated for it. If the powers that be want to replace us with security guards then they will soon see what inflexibility really means.

Moving on I would again like to raise the issue of Pay parity and the net pay deduction. You will note sir that this is raised as a formal proposition, having been raised during my address at last years conference. You stated that this is indeed a complex issue and that it should be jointly looked at. Unfortunately that has not happened, however the proposition to be forwarded has a great deal of merit and support from all federated ranks and we would urge you to take this matter forward and to give your support.

Also last year the Federation again raised the issue of officer safety, particularly around the areas of body armour and incapacitant spray, it was agreed that this issue would be put to Mr. Colin Burrows for review, in the intervening months officers are awaiting personal issue body armour and incapacitant spray is not available to all officers.

We were all shocked and saddened by the murder of Constable Sharon Beshenivsky and the attempted murder of her colleague Constable Teresa Milburn in Bradford late last year.

Therefore Sir once again I request that this matter is taken forward with a degree of urgency, as officer safety must be of paramount importance to us all.

Thank you for your attention and I will now hand over to you for the JCC meeting.