The Police (Amendment No. 4) Regulations 2012

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Regulations 3, 5 and 6 of these Regulations amend the Police Regulations 2003 (“the 2003 Regulations”) to implement recommendations made in the Independent Review of Police Officer and Staff Remuneration and Conditions: Part 1 Report (Cm. 8024:“the Report”).

Regulation 3 of these Regulations amends regulation 5 of the 2003 Regulations in order to increase from one month to two months the period within which a part-time member of a police force wishing to return to full-time service must be allowed to do so, if there is a suitable vacancy available. The amendment also increases from three months to four months the period within which the member must be allowed to work full-time if there is no suitable vacancy. This implements recommendation 59 in the Report.

Regulation 5 of these Regulations amends regulation 26 of the 2003 Regulations in order to allow the Secretary of State to determine the circumstances and manner in which a member of a police force shall be granted leave or otherwise compensated in respect of time spent on duty on a day which the member has elected to treat as a public holiday. This is to allow the implementation of recommendation 8 in the Report.

Regulation 6 of these Regulations amends paragraph 7 of Schedule 3 to the 2003 Regulations, with the effect that the replacement allowance paid in respect of a previous entitlement to housing allowances or emoluments is not increased to reflect changes in personal circumstances (such as promotion) which would have caused the original allowance or emolument to be increased. This implements recommendation 43 in the Report.

Further recommendations in the Report are implemented by determinations of the Secretary of State made under the 2003 Regulations, and by amendments to police pensions regulations.

Regulation 4 of these Regulations amends regulation 11 of the 2003 Regulations, which makes provision about fixed term appointments for senior police officers.

Regulation 11(2B) of the 2003 Regulations provides for the extension of a fixed term appointment, subject to the consent of the Secretary of State if the extended term is to last more than a year longer than the original term. These Regulations remove the requirement for the Secretary of State’s consent.

An extension under regulation 11(2B) of the 2003 Regulations may be made with the agreement of the person who made the appointment. Appointments of deputy chief constables made before 22nd November 2012 will have been made by the relevant police authority. Appointments of Assistant Commissioners and Deputy Assistant Commissioners of the Metropolitan Police made before 16th January 2012 will have been made by the Metropolitan Police Authority.

Regulation 4 of these Regulations inserts a new regulation 11(2C) which has the effect that these appointments are treated, from 22nd November, as if they had been made by the relevant chief officer of police. It will be the relevant chief officer of police who has to agree any extension of a fixed term appointment, just as it is the chief officer who, from 22nd November, will make new appointments to these ranks.

These Regulations further amend regulation 11 of the 2003 Regulations in order to cater for the situation where a senior officer is standing in for the chief officer of police at the time when the senior officer’s fixed term appointment expires. Where a senior officer is discharging the chief officer’s functions, the senior officer is regarded in law as the chief officer and therefore “the person who made the appointment”. The senior officer would therefore be able to approve the extension of his or her own appointment. This is not regarded as appropriate.

Regulation 4 of these Regulations therefore inserts a new regulation 11(2D) to (2F) in the 2003 Regulations, which has the effect that the fixed term appointment of a senior officer who is standing in for the chief officer continues either until the senior officer is substantively appointed as chief officer, or until six months after the appointment of another person as chief officer. In the latter case, the other person appointed as chief officer must then give the senior officer at least three months notice as to whether or not the appointment is to be extended when it eventually expires.