Police Scotland tightens special sick pay arrangement over budget worries

Police Scotland has been forced to cut the number of special sick pay arrangements offered to officers.

Under the current rules, Chief Constable Jo Farrell has the discretion to allow officers to continue to receive full or half pay to which they would not be entitled under the force’s absence regulations.

But in a letter to one officer, seen by the Press Association, the service’s head of human resources said their sick pay would not be extended after the arrangement was tightened.

The force sought a £105 million uplift, but received only £90 million.

“The Scottish Government budget confirmed a £90.3 million increase to revenue budget against a baseline budget bid of £104.9 million before investment,” the letter said.

“This represents a challenging position that will have operational consequences and work is ongoing to establish a balanced budget.

“As a result, the organisation must reduce operating costs to meet its statutory obligation to set a balanced budget and live within its budget.

“Due to the organisation’s current financial position, the governance and scrutiny arrangements for the exercise of particular case discretion have been enhanced.

“While all requests continue to be considered on an individual basis, decisions are now subject to enhanced executive-level oversight to ensure they are appropriate, affordable and taken consistently on individual merits.

“Having considered your request for an extension of sick pay, a decision has been taken not to exercise discretion in this case at this stage.”

Under the current terms, officers are entitled to six months of full pay when signed off work, followed by a further six months on half pay, which can be altered by the Chief Constable.

Speaking at a fringe event at the SNP conference in Edinburgh on Saturday, Scottish Police Federation general secretary David Kennedy said: “As of March, we’ve now had members contacting us because of the budget that’s been set.

“We are now getting police officers who are terminally-ill who are off their work, who have been injured on duty who are off their work, being told by the service that because of the budget you’ll no longer be kept on pay and you’ll be forced onto half pay or no pay whilst at home.

“That’s a real concern at the moment, particularly when you look at the mental health of the police officers that will affect.

“Straight away, before we even get into the next financial year, we’ve got our members who are seeing a direct consequence of their efforts to look after communities when they get injured, where the Chief Constable is now going to take that money out of their own pockets.”

The Scottish Government has been approached for comment.