CHIEF police officers have been accused of betraying front line cops by giving their full backing to compulsory severance \u2013 after receiving a behind doors briefing from HM chief inspector of constabulary Tom Winsor.<\/p>\n
It has been claimed that at a meeting of its Chief Constables\u2019 Council \u2013 attended by all the country\u2019s chiefs and Mr Winsor (pictured) \u2013 ACPO was considering withdrawing its support for police redundancy. But that chiefs changed their mind.<\/p>\n
It is alleged that the gathering of chiefs \u2013 whose views feed into the Official Side of the Police Negotiating Board \u2013 changed their mind after hearing from Mr Winsor, the man who recommended the introduction of redundancy in his second police pay and conditions report in early 2012.<\/p>\n
A statement from Merseyside Police Federation said chief officers had stabbed rank and file cops in the back.<\/p>\n
It stated: \u201cPrior to the [PNB] meeting taking place our leaders were addressed by Tom Winsor who managed to convince ACPO that if they backtracked on their original recommendation they would look foolish in the eyes of the Home Office.
\n\u201cSo Mr Winsor convinced our \u201cstrategic thinkers\u201d to change their minds, in order to save face with the Government, and complete a U-turn.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Merseyside Police Federation described it as \u201cbetrayal by our trusted leaders who we look to protect us and lead us in the best interests of policing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Avon and Somerset Police Federation\u2019s official Twitter feed also mentioned the meeting between chiefs and Mr Winsor. It stated: \u201cHeard that Chiefs [at] their recent meeting were leaning towards changing their stance on compulsory severance \u2013 Winsor apparently left them in no doubt there should be no change as it was Government Policy and they would look weak\u201d.<\/p>\n
An ACPO spokeswoman said \u201cchiefs recognised the strength of feeling among police officers about compulsory severance\u201d and that it \u201cwould be a matter of extreme last resort.\u201d<\/p>\n
She confirmed that Mr Winsor did speak to chiefs at the Chief Constables\u2019 Council on July 17 \u201con a range of policing issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recommendation 46 of the Winsor II review into pay and conditions proposed that \u201cthe Police Regulations 2003 should be amended to create a system of compulsory severance for police officers with less than full pensionable service\u201d.<\/p>\n
On July 24, a week after the Winsor\/ACPO summit, the Police Negotiating Board registered a \u201cfailure to agree\u201d over compulsory severance. The controversial issue will now go to the Police Arbitration Tribunal later this year \u2013 likely to be in the Autumn. Home Secretary Theresa May will then have the final decision.<\/p>\n
Chief Constables\u2019 Council is \u201cthe senior operational decision-making body\u201d for ACPO. It brings together chief constables of police forces in the United Kingdom, meets around six times a year and is chaired by ACPO president Sir Hugh Orde.<\/p>\n
The ACPO spokeswoman added: \u201cTom Winsor\u2019s views on compulsory redundancy are well known and were laid out in his report. It was not surprising that he should maintain that his recommendation should be implemented.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe overriding issue for chiefs was that beyond 2016 there are likely to be further significant funding cuts and therefore, very reluctantly, forces in the future would need to have this means of reducing expenditure at their disposal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking last month Mr Winsor said having compulsory severance in the Police Service would not be \u201cinconsistent\u201d with the office of constable. Speaking after delivering the Police Foundation\u2019s John Harris Memorial Lecture in London he said the power should be \u201cused sparingly.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesman for HMIC said: \u201cMr Winsor accepted an invitation from ACPO to attend the Chiefs\u2019 Council on 17 July. Any questions regarding ACPO\u2019s decisions to support or otherwise elements of police reform are for ACPO to answer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CHIEF police officers have been accused of betraying front line cops by giving their full backing to compulsory severance \u2013 after receiving a behind doors briefing from HM chief inspector\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":233,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":403,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions\/403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}