Downing Street Says » Police Pay/Public Sector Pay

Asked if the Prime Minister had received any representation from backbench delegations or Ministerial colleagues about Police pay, the PMS replied that we received representations about all sorts of matters all of the time; as the Home Secretary had been saying, we were very grateful for the hard work which Police Officers carried out everyday but we also had a responsibility to ensure that pay settlements in the public sector were affordable and consistent with wider Government pay policy.

Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with the Home Secretary’s decision, the PMS replied that of course he did.

Put that that had not been made clear, the PMS said that he was making it clear now.

Asked if the Prime Minister saw this as a key test of his own wider policy on public sector pay, the PMS replied that clearly this had been a tighter public sector pay round than we had seen in previous years. It was important that the Government made its contribution to controlling inflation, to enable the Bank of England to keep interest rates as low as possible at this difficult time in the world economy. Of course, difficult decisions had been taken across the public sector, but, as with the tough decisions the Prime Minister had taken in the past which were not necessarily universally welcomed at the time, such decisions had led to a greater stability in the British economy; a much stronger economy; more jobs; lower inflation; lower interest rates and a rise in prosperity. The Prime Minister would continue to take the right long term decisions for the country.

Asked if the Prime Minister regretted letting the cost of housing get so high, the PMS said that the Prime Minister completely stood by decisions that had been made in relation to the inflation target and he had always said that he stood by decisions taken by the Bank of England.

Asked if the Government would be willing to go to court if the Police did strike, the PMS said that we were not at that point yet but that the Home Secretary had made clear that we had a responsibility to ensure that pay settlements were affordable and consistent with Government pay policy across the board.

Put that the Police said they were an exception to the rule as they did not have the right to strike and asked if the Government thought their case was exceptional in that sense, the PMS said that the Government’s position was to ensure that public sector pay settlements were consistent across the board and the Police had seen some substantial increases in pay over the last 10 years, as the Home Secretary had pointed out yesterday.

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» Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Police Pay/Public Sector Pay

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