Conference / Speeches

General Secretary's Report 2007.

Delegates, Fraternal Delegates and guests, welcome to Conference.

I must first apologise as to the arrangements for this Conference. That is to say that we have had to work around our normal agenda to fit in the JCC in the first instance and other factors with the Police Authority.

You are all aware of the present situation regarding events around our Force, so there's not much point in dwelling to any great extent on the vast array of subjects that are at present being dealt with.

Suffice is it to say that I will update you as best I can.

We continue to have a good rapport with Professional Standards and I am pleased to acknowledge that good, sensible, decisions have been made in a number of areas.

Dealing with outstanding issues since last Conference, the majority of these have been dealt with.

Our move to align with Home Office Police Regulations continues and should shortly be concluded.

We would however like to retain certain parts of our present conditions and this we will negotiate at the appropriate time. But it would be remiss of me to promise success, but at least, whatever the outcome we will be on a more stable footing.

The recently announced review of Police Pay and Conditions will obviously affect us as the Chairman has already pointed out. You will be kept up to date as and when.

Reciprocal agreements are also a bone of contention and we are assured by the Chair of the Police Authority that he intends to rectify this problem.

There has been no definite decisions on the future of Springfield's and Capenhurst as yet, and we now have an additional problems surrounding the Tactical Response Groups, along with a number of Police Staff, which are to be disbanded in the coming Months.

There are of course vacancies to be filled but there is clearly a lot of dialogue and negotiations to be done, hopefully to these officers satisfaction. This is going to take some time. You will of course be informed as to progress.

There are a number of meetings scheduled over the coming weeks to negotiate the best package

There are 60 vacancies for Sergeants in the Force to date. This is on top of the 14 successful candidates that passed the promotion boards in January.

There will be other promotion boards, Probably July/August, with the next Sergeants exam being held in September, followed by further promotion boards in November/December.

At Constable Level, there are around 140 vacancy's througout the Force. The next recruits course commences on 14th May 2007, followed by another intake commencing 25th June, and another commencing 30th July 2007.

The Force continues to recruit in spite of all that is going on and so we remain optimistic in this present climate.

As I have said, there's not much point in going into a great deal of telling you what you already know, but you should be aware that your Executive Committee has been and will continue to be, extremely busy in the weeks and months ahead.

As is usual, I thank the members of the Executive, Branch Officials, our financial advisors, Solicitors, James Winston etc and of course a sincere thank you to Webmasters of Northern Ireland for setting up our Federation Website.

I trust the members will find this quite useful, as it contains the vast majority of services that the Federation has to offer.

The membership continues to grow and I am sure the Treasurer will confirm this in his Annual Report.

We are at present in the process of securing the services of the Northern Police Convalescent Home and Treatment Centre. I expect the cost per member to be in the region of 78 pence per member per month.

You will be kept informed as to progress.