MEMBERS’ ALLOWANCES
By virtue of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001, attendance allowances were deregulated in 2002, and each Police Authority was authorised to decide its own allowance scheme. This presented an opportunity to modernise the way in which Members were remunerated for the time and effort contributed to Police Authority business and helped to ensure that no-one was excluded for financial reasons from becoming a Member of Police Authorities. This is also in line with the practice of Local and other Public Authorities.
The Association of Police Authorities set up an Independent Report to take an Independent and objective look at the allowances which should be paid to Police Authority Members. The Independent Report recommended the following rates of basic allowance, based on a figure of £18 an hour. Because of the amount of time that Members spend travelling to meetings in an area as large as North Wales, allowances were weighted as follows:
| Band A |
0 to 25 miles away from HQ |
No weighting |
| Band B |
26 to 40 miles away from HQ |
+ 10% |
| Band C |
41 to 55 miles away from HQ |
+ 20% |
| Band CH |
Above 56 miles away from HQ |
+30% |
N.B. The distances refer to the distance from HQ measured one way by the nearest reasonable route and the percentages are not cumulative.
The current Scheme of Basic and Special Responsibility Allowances is as follows:
| |
BAND |
From 010907 |
| Basic |
A |
5979 |
| |
B |
6573 |
| |
C |
7173 |
| |
CH |
7770 |
| Primary |
A |
8967 |
| Committee |
B |
9864 |
| Chair |
C |
10758 |
| |
CH |
11661 |
| Authority |
A |
10758 |
| Vice Chair |
B |
11835 |
| |
C |
12915 |
| |
CH |
13989 |
| Authority |
A |
17934 |
| Chair |
B |
19728 |
| |
C |
21522 |
| |
CH |
23319 |
NOTES
1. The Special Responsibility Allowances proposed for Authority Chair and Vice Chair and Committee Chairs are instead, rather than in addition, to the basic allowance. Where a Member might be entitled to more than one special responsibility allowance (e.g. as Chair of both the Authority and one of its Committees) only the higher allowance would apply.
2. The meetings of the Authority where a Special Responsibility for the Chairman applies are as follows:
| Primary Committees |
Professional Standards |
| |
Performance Review |
|
Audit Committee |
| |
Strategic Planning |
| |
Human Resources |
| |
Consultation Committee |
| |
Neighbourhood Policing Committee |
3. An attendance allowance of £65 per half day is paid to Independent Members of the Standards Committee and Police Appeal Tribunals.
4. A Carers/Dependant Allowance of £6 per hour is payable in appropriate circumstances (children under 16, other dependants where evidence of need is provided, payable against actual expenditure, evidenced by receipts, not payable to a member of the Claimant’s household etc.)
5. The allowances are index linked annually to the mid point of the Police Support Staff Council pay scales. |
|