Police Pay 2026/27: What the Federation Is Pushing For
The PRRB has already sent its recommendation to the Home Office. The 2026/27 pay announcement is coming soon. Here’s what your Federation has been fighting for — and what it means when the number drops.
- PFEW is calling for a minimum 7% pay award for 2026/27, then 7% again for the two years after that
- Police pay has fallen 22% in real terms since 2010 — this claim is built to start reversing that
- The PRRB has submitted its recommendation — the Home Office announcement is imminent
- Our pay scales page will be updated as soon as the figures are confirmed
The ask: 7%, three years running
Every year PFEW puts the case for fair police pay to the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) — the independent body that makes recommendations to the Government on what officers should earn. This year they describe their submission as the most comprehensive they’ve ever made.
The headline is a minimum 7% consolidated pay award for 2026/27, followed by 7% in each of the following two years. A multi-year ask rather than the usual annual round, because a single year won’t touch the damage done since 2010. You can read their full submission at polfed.org.
| Year | PFEW demand |
|---|---|
| 2026/27 | Minimum 7% |
| 2027/28 | 7% |
| 2028/29 | 7% |
| Real-terms pay change since 2010 | −22% |
Why 7%? The case in brief
PFEW built their submission around five arguments. I’d encourage you to read it in full — it’s thorough — but here are the numbers that stood out to me.
The Home Office recorded 47,482 assaults on Constables in the year to March 2025. That’s up 2.8% on the year before. It works out to roughly 130 officers assaulted every single day, around 30 of whom are injured. A PFEW survey of nearly 5,700 members found 85% feel public respect for the profession is falling, and 60% say it’s having a negative impact on their health and wellbeing.
Meanwhile, private sector roles that draw on the same skills as police officers saw pay rise by an average of 67% between 2010 and 2025. Police pay went the other way. The gap is structural, and it’s getting wider.
The workforce is also getting younger: nearly half of all Constables now have five years’ service or fewer. Officers are being asked to handle increasingly complex work — new legislation, more digital evidence, more safeguarding obligations — for pay that has shrunk in real terms every year for over a decade.
Know exactly what the award means for you
When the number drops, update your rate in Overtime Live and see instantly what every shift puts in your pocket — gross and estimated take-home after tax, NI and pension. Free, no subscription.
Beyond the headline: the rest of PFEW’s demands
The 7% is the number most people will focus on, but PFEW submitted a lot more than that. A few of the things they’re pushing for that will matter most day-to-day:
- Shorter Constable pay scale. Officers carry serious responsibility from shift one — the current structure makes them wait years before their pay reflects it.
- A Detective Allowance to tackle the persistent CID recruitment and retention crisis.
- South East and London allowances paid in full, rather than left to force discretion.
- A shift alteration and roster disruption allowance — recognition that having your schedule rearranged at short notice has real personal and financial costs.
- Better leave. More annual leave, long-service leave, recuperation leave, and improved family leave with day-one rights.
- Court compensation regardless of the 15-day notice threshold.
They also pushed back specifically against proposals from the NPCC that would weaken conditions — the argument being that eroding terms right now, when retention is already a problem, would make everything worse.
What happens next
The PRRB has done its job — its recommendation is already with the Home Office. The Government isn’t legally bound to follow it, but has to have regard to it and explain any significant departure. Based on recent years, that’s where the tension tends to be: the PRRB recommends, the Government decides how much of it actually gets funded.
The Government has directed the PRRB to keep awards within existing budget constraints for several years running. PFEW has called publicly for that constraint to be lifted so the PRRB can make a genuinely independent recommendation. Whether that changed this year will become clear when the announcement is made.
As soon as the Home Office confirms the 2026/27 award, I’ll update the pay scales page with every rank’s new figures.
Police pay scales — updated the moment the award is confirmed
All current 2025/26 rates are live now. New figures will go up as soon as the Home Office announces.
View Police Pay Scales →Follow @OvertimeLiveApp and we’ll post the moment the announcement lands.