Met officer sets £58,000 record for overtime pay (Tower Hamlets Liberal Democrats)

Tower Hamlets Liberal Democrats <info@tower-hamlets-libdems.org.uk>

Met officer sets £58,000 record for overtime pay

August 11, 2010 12:36 PM
In Evening Standard
Originally published by London Assembly Liberal Democrats

London's police officers are earning large amounts of overtime pay with some getting close to £60,000 a year on top of their salaries, it was revealed today.

Figures released to the Metropolitan Police Authority show that five constables and two sergeants received £50,000 or more in overtime last year and a further 157 officers were paid at least £25,000 for after-hours work. The biggest beneficiary received £58,336.

Overtime cost the Met £129 million last year and ministers have announced a review of the rules governing such payments - which are set nationally - as part of plans to reduce public spending. However, critics today urged Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson to rein back costs immediately.

Dee Doocey, London Assembly Liberal Democrat spokeswoman on policing said: "For too many years the Met's overtime bill has been out of control. With the number of police officers set to fall, it can't be right that some officers are doubling their salaries with the amount of overtime they are doing."

The new figures, which cover the financial year 2009/10 and the previous 12 months, suggest that several officers will receive close to, or even above, £100,000 once their basic pay and London allowance are taken into account. In 2008/09 the highest sum paid to a constable was £42,500 and £51,900 to a sergeant, but these rose by £10,000 and £7,000 respectively in 2009/10.

The Met's overall overtime bill has almost doubled in the past decade despite constables and sergeants being the only officers able to claim it. In 2000, £70 million was given to officers for working extra hours, and last year's total was £129 million - although this was down on the £136 million spent during the previous 12 months.

Most of those receiving large overtime payments in the Met work in the force's royalty and diplomatic protection unit which requires them to remain on duty for long periods. The force spent nearly £114 million on such tasks last year. Sir Paul has indicated that he would like to scale back some protection duties, but the Met insists that overtime payments remain more cost effective than hiring extra staff.

"The use of managed overtime is an effective way of meeting operational requirements whilst not incurring the additional costs of uniforms, radios, pensions, etc. that recruiting extra officers incurs," a spokesman said.

Mayor Boris Johnson announced this year that 450 Met posts will be lost in the next three years. Further cuts could follow once the review of public spending is completed in the autumn.