Chief officers must iron out problems with police officer away from home pay ahead of the Commonwealth Games

CHIEF officers must iron out problems with police officers’ pay for those who are deployed away from home ahead of the Commonwealth Games, Hampshire Police Federation has said.

The Birmingham 2022 Games – to be held between 28 July and Monday 8 August – are just eight months away, and Hampshire officers will be sent up under mutual aid agreement to keep the event safe.

Recent reports from Cop26 found problems with remuneration Hampshire Police Federation has said.

The force sent around 250 officers to Glasgow for the international event for two weeks. But, Hampshire Police Federation said: “The biggest concerns were that there was a lack of direction and decisions made at a national level in relation to officers’ reimbursement for their being away from home and their cancelled rest days, and last-minute duty changes for such a prolonged period of time.

“We’ve got great, great concerns that we won’t be in a better position for the Commonwealth Games unless the National Police Chiefs Council jointly make some decision pretty swiftly on the remuneration for officers deployed away from home on mutual aid.

“We’re lucky that with our Hampshire lot, with all the Covid constraints and all that time away from home, with the long hours, no one was injured, nobody got Covid, and we were accommodated well. We were looked after by our colleagues in Scotland so we came out of it very well compared to other forces who I know had issues with accommodation, feeding and remuneration.”

The problems were avoided in Hampshire because the Federation worked closely with the operations team to ensure officers knew what was going on, what they were getting paid, and that the force stuck to their word.

Hampshire Police Federation added: “We did have a bit of a battle on our return to make sure that they did get what they were told they were going to get before they left.  I do hope that we’ve learned some lessons from G7 and COP26 and that things will be far better for our members that do go up in August.”

The Federation added that it was a “successful operation from Hampshire’s perspective” and that Hampshire worked well with other forces and enjoyed the experience.