Chief Constable promises police payrise
PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has said he will implement a seven per cent pay rise for his officers without securing funding first.
He made clear he first wanted to exhaust political negotiations to secure the estimated £20 million required to give officers the increase reccomended by the UK's independent Pay Review Board.
The police chief recognised the move might prompt a formal sanction for breaching his responsibilities as an accounting officer for the PSNI’s budget.
The police service is currently facing a deficit of £52 million.
He said: “They deserve it and I am determined that they’re going to get it.”
Boutcher's comments came alongside a warning about staffing levels.
Speaking to the Policing Board in Belfast, the chief constable said that the PSNI was at a “tipping point”.
He cautioned that officer headcount could be reduced to less than 6,000 for the first time in early 2025 if action was not taken. The recommended number is 7,500.
The recently appointed police chief vowed to start a new recruitment drive for officers in April, despite the PSNI’s financial difficulties.
DUP board member Trevor Clarke asked Boutcher how he would deliver the rise, given that he had not yet secured government funding.
The chief constable acknowledged his "very important" accounting responsibilities but added that Northern Ireland faced a “unique policing context” and the PSNI could not afford to lose any more officers.
“We are losing police officers because they can’t afford to be police officers,” he said.
“So, this is for political parties here, the Executive here, it’s for the Treasury, it’s for the Home Secretary, for the Prime Minister, it’s for everybody – for us to make this case so that something might shift what is at the moment a logjam.
“And, if it comes to a point where I have to step into a position where I am breaching my accounting officer responsibilities, and the Policing Board and the Department of Justice and the Department of Finance decide that they may have to sanction me, then we’ll get into that territory if we need to. So that’s the way this is going.”
Mr Clarke described Mr Boutcher’s stance as “bold”.
“So, given they (officers) have been waiting so long, why not breach it now, why wait, what are you waiting on?” the DUP representative asked.
"You’ve had your answer from the Secretary of State, you know all the political parties in Northern Ireland support your position and indeed support the officers with the 7 per cent to bring them into parity with the rest of the UK."
“Why not just breach the authority now and actually pay that, you’d be like Santa Claus coming to Christmas.”
Boutcher replied: “That’s why you are a politician who can say things like that and I’m a police chief constable and I have to make sure this organisation continues and is funded.
“I’m saying that’s my intention to do. I’m setting out the way this is going to come forward in the future.
"I’m not going to be irresponsible, I’m very conscious of the public purse. I’m setting out the reality of the position. And I’m going to set out – if that doesn’t result in anything that changes – the next steps."
He concluded, “That’s the responsible thing to do.”
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