Police Pay Scales

Sergeant and above: a single scale regardless of join date

Once you move above the rank of Constable, the picture simplifies. Sergeant, Inspector, Chief Inspector, Superintendent and Chief Superintendent all have a single pay scale that applies regardless of when the individual officer originally joined the service, as set out in the table below. The Sergeant scale no longer has a PP1 point — PP2 is the entry point.

The reason there's no pre- and post-2013 distinction at these ranks is that the dual-scale arrangement was specific to the Constable rank as part of the changes introduced around that time; promotion to Sergeant or above has, since then, meant moving onto these single unified scales regardless of the officer's original join date or which Constable scale they were progressing through beforehand. This makes pay comparisons at these ranks considerably more straightforward than at Constable level, since there's only one figure to look up for each point rather than having to first establish which of two scales applies.

How incremental progression through a scale works

Progression through a pay scale — moving from one point to the next, for example from PP1 to PP2 — is not automatic in every case, but for the great majority of officers it happens once a year, subject to satisfactory performance, until the top of the scale is reached. In practice, this means most officers can expect to move up one point on their scale annually on the anniversary of joining their current rank, assuming there are no performance concerns that would prevent it.

Once an officer reaches the top point of their scale, further pay increases at the same rank come only from the annual, force-wide uplift applied to the whole scale (rather than from further incremental progression, since there's no higher point left to move to), until the officer is promoted to a higher rank with its own scale. This is worth bearing in mind when thinking about long-term pay trajectory: the jump from being partway up a scale to being promoted into a new rank's scale is often larger, in percentage terms, than the annual increment within a single rank, which is one of several financial factors — alongside the change in day-to-day role and responsibility — that officers weigh up when considering whether to apply for promotion.

It's also worth noting that incremental progression assumes continuous service at that rank; officers who move between forces, take extended leave, or have breaks in service may find the timing of their next increment affected, and it's worth checking the specific position with your own force's HR or pay team if your circumstances aren't straightforward.

The Police Remuneration Review Body and annual uplifts

Police officer pay in England and Wales isn't negotiated directly between individual forces and officers in the way pay might be set in some other sectors. Instead, the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) — an independent body — considers evidence each year from the Home Office, police staff associations (including the Police Federation), individual forces and other interested parties, and makes recommendations to the Home Secretary on what the pay uplift for that year should be across the various ranks and scales.

The Home Secretary then decides whether to accept the PRRB's recommendations, and the resulting uplift is applied nationally across all forces on a common effective date — currently 1 September each year, which is why the figures in this table (and the wider set of calculators on this site) are dated to a 1 September effective date. Because the process runs annually, the specific pound figures on each scale point are expected to change again the following September, once that year's PRRB recommendation has been considered and implemented, and it's worth checking for updated figures around that time each year rather than assuming a given year's scale will remain current indefinitely.

This national, centrally-recommended approach is one of the reasons pay scales look broadly similar for officers of the same rank and scale point regardless of which force they work for, in contrast to some other public sector roles where local pay variation is more common. Location allowances, discussed on the dedicated allowance calculators on this site, are the main mechanism by which pay does vary meaningfully by where an officer is based, sitting on top of the national scale rather than replacing it.

Using this table alongside the Promotion Pay Comparison Calculator

The figures on this page are most useful as a reference for understanding where you currently sit and what the scale looks like above you, but they become considerably more powerful for decision-making when combined with the Promotion Pay Comparison Calculator elsewhere on this site, which translates the headline scale figures into an actual take-home pay comparison.

A jump from the top of the Constable scale to the bottom of the Sergeant scale, for example, looks like a substantial pay rise on paper — moving from £50,256 on the post-2013 Constable scale to £53,568 at the start of the Sergeant scale represents a gross increase of over £3,000 a year. But the take-home effect of that increase is smaller than the gross figure alone suggests, once you account for the extra income tax and National Insurance due on the additional pay, and potentially a different pension contribution tier if the move pushes your pensionable pay across one of the tier thresholds described elsewhere on this site. Using the promotion comparison tool alongside this reference table lets you see the actual net pay difference a promotion would bring, rather than relying on the gross scale figures alone, which is particularly useful when weighing up whether the financial upside of a promotion justifies the change in role, responsibility, or working pattern that often comes with it.

It's also worth using this table to think a step or two ahead rather than just at the immediate next point or rank. Because incremental progression through a scale typically happens annually, you can use the table to estimate roughly where your gross pay is likely to sit in one, two or three years' time even without a promotion, simply by tracking your progression up your current scale, which can be a useful input when thinking about affordability for things like a mortgage application or other significant financial commitments.

How pay scales compare to allowances and overtime in the bigger picture

It's easy to focus entirely on the pay scale figure when thinking about earnings, since it's the number quoted in job adverts, promotion boards and general conversation, but for many officers the scale point is only one part of the overall pay picture. Location allowances, where applicable, sit on top of the scale and can add anywhere from around £3,000 a year in South East force areas to nearly £9,738 a year in the Metropolitan area, and detective allowance adds a further amount on top of that for officers in specialist investigative roles. None of these allowances change which scale point you're on, but they do change your actual gross and pensionable pay, and therefore your income tax, National Insurance and pension contribution figures.

Overtime sits in a different category again: it's calculated from your scale-derived hourly rate, using the multipliers set out on the Overtime Pay Calculator. When comparing your own earnings with a colleague's, or thinking about the true financial gap between two scale points or two ranks, it's worth being clear about whether you're comparing scale pay alone, scale pay plus allowances, or total earnings including overtime, since conflating the three can give a misleading impression of how much a promotion or a move to a different posting would actually change your income.

This is precisely why this site provides a family of calculators rather than a single tool: the pay scales page tells you the national baseline figures, the location and detective allowance calculators show how postings and roles add to that baseline, the overtime calculator shows how extra hours are paid on top, and the main take-home pay calculator and promotion comparison tool bring all of these together to show the actual net effect on your bank balance, after pension, tax and National Insurance have all been applied.

Keeping the figures on this page current

Because pay scale figures are reviewed and typically uplifted annually, following the Police Remuneration Review Body's recommendation cycle and the Home Secretary's decision on it, the figures on this page reflect the rates effective from 1 September of the current cycle. If you're reading this well into a subsequent year, it's worth double-checking against your own force's official pay circular or your payslip to confirm the figures you're working from are current, particularly if you're using them for a significant financial decision such as a mortgage application, where lenders will typically want to see your actual current payslip figures rather than a general reference table in any case.

Officers who've recently transferred between forces, returned from a career break, or moved from a specialist role back into a standard rank sometimes find it useful to use this table simply to confirm which point they should be sitting on, since payroll errors around scale point placement, while not common, do occasionally occur, particularly around transitions such as promotion, transfer or return from leave. If your payslip doesn't match what you'd expect based on your rank, scale point and any allowances you're entitled to, this table is a reasonable starting point for identifying where the discrepancy might lie before raising a query with your force's payroll or HR team.

Reading the scale table alongside your own contract

When you look at the pay scale table, the figure that matters for your own situation is the point that matches your actual contract and length of service at your current rank, not simply the top or bottom of the scale. New joiners typically start at PP1 of the relevant scale, and it's worth checking your own offer letter or contract to confirm your specific starting point, since in some circumstances — for example where relevant previous service or experience is recognised — an officer may start higher up a scale than PP1, though this is the exception rather than the rule for most new Constables.

It's also worth being aware that the scale figures quoted here are annual full-time equivalent figures. If you work part-time, your actual salary will be a pro-rated fraction of the relevant scale point figure, based on your contracted hours relative to full-time hours, rather than the full scale figure shown in this table. The Part-Time Pay Calculator on this site is the right tool for translating a full-time equivalent scale point into your actual pro-rated salary, and it's worth using that alongside this reference table if your working pattern isn't full-time, so you're comparing your real contracted salary against the correct baseline rather than the full-time figure shown here.