Last Friday in Parliament this question and answer (only the first few lines are shown here, the rest of the answer can be seen on this website) took place and on the face of things, there is no reason for public sector workers to be limited in their pay rises. After all according to Nick Gibb the pay cap has been removed.

Now of course just like MPs and Police and Crime Commissioners, the whole of the public sector has their pay determined through several mechanisms. One of these is there being sufficient budget available. Now to be truthful, the pay for MPs and Peers and PCCs is based on an unlimited budget, but that is simply par for the course until members of society get a chance to set such budgets! The next step is for the pay award to be proposed by an independent body which is appointed by the Government. After that any pay caps need to be taken into account and also any Departmental decisions. However as Nick Gibb states, the cap has now been removed and over the Summer the  Police Remuneration Pay Body proposed that a 3% pay increase be awarded to Officers. This decision was then considered by the Home Secretary and Sajid Javid approved it and because there is no cap, that should be the end of the matter. However apparently the Prime Minister and the Chancellor told Sajid that they intend to block this decision and limited the increase to 2%. So there is no cap, simply a 2% limit set arbitrarily by two MPs one of whom was elected by 37,718 electors in the Thames Valley Police area and the other of whom was elected by 31,436 electors in the Surrey Police area.

Perhaps the Labour shadow policing minister Louise Haigh could ask the same question of her opposite number Nick Hurd, next time he is in the Chamber and able to respond? Just as importantly the PCC’s most of whom were elected by many more electors in their area could choose to side with the Pay Body and the Home Secretary and instigate the 3% pay increase, sending the 1% bill to the Chancellor demanding that he matches the pay award that is free from a pay cap. The Sussex PCC was elected by 114,570 electors so she has a far larger democratic mandate than Theresa and Philip Hammond combined!