Police Pay

Editorial Policy

How this site actually gets built, not a marketing version of it.

Where The Numbers Come From

Pay figures trace back to Police Regulations 2003 and the annual PRRB (Police Remuneration Review Body) determinations published by the Home Office. Pension figures trace back to the 1987, 2006 and 2015 scheme rules and the McCloud remedy legislation. Tax and National Insurance figures use the current HMRC bands. Where a figure is genuinely a forecast rather than a confirmed one, we say so on the page. We don't present a projection as if it were settled.

How Pages Get Written

This is a small independent site, not a newsroom with a large staff. Content is drafted using a combination of primary-source research and AI-assisted writing tools, directed and checked by the site owner before publishing. See our AI Use Disclosure for the honest detail on that. Every calculator's underlying maths is built from the regulations and rate tables listed in our Source Policy, not from guesswork.

When Pages Get Updated

Pay and pension pages are revisited whenever a PRRB determination, a Police Regulations amendment or an HMRC tax-year change actually lands, not on a fixed calendar schedule. Most pages show a "last updated" date so you can judge freshness for yourself rather than take a claim of currency on trust.

News Standards

The PolicePay news desk covers national, official news about the working life of police officers and staff: pay, pensions, careers, recruitment, exams, welfare, conditions, equality, training and official statistics. Every item is written by Andrew Thomas, says what the news means for you and links to the guide or tool that works it out. These rules apply to every item.

  • Primary sources only. We report from the original document: the ONS release, the Home Office statistics, the regulation, the circular or the union's own statement. We do not report from other news reports. Every item lists its sources and the date we read them.
  • Independently checked before publishing. A separate check, run apart from the drafting, opens each source again and checks every number, date, name and claim in the item, including its charts and headline. An item is not published until that check passes. If a fact cannot be confirmed from a primary source, the item is held. How the check works.
  • AI tools, human responsibility. AI tools help research and draft items and run the separate check. Every item is published under Andrew Thomas's name and he is responsible for it. See how we use AI in the news.
  • News kept apart from sales. Paid products never appear in the text of a news item. Where an item's page shows one, it sits after the end of the item in a box labelled "Advert: PolicePay product". Our free tools, guides and newsletter boxes are labelled "From PolicePay".
  • No live proceedings. We do not report on court cases, inquests, misconduct hearings or tribunals while they are under way, or on anything covered by reporting restrictions.
  • No named individuals in misconduct or criminal cases. We do not cover crime stories or individual misconduct or criminal cases. Where a national change affects misconduct rules, we explain the rule, not anyone's case.
  • No Federation or union politics. We report what representative bodies formally publish, such as a pay claim or a ballot result. We do not report internal disputes or elections.
  • Welfare stories with care. Items on mental health, injury, assaults on officers or deaths are factual and use national figures, with no graphic detail. Where relevant they signpost support such as Oscar Kilo and Police Care UK.
  • Anonymity. We do not name or identify serving officers, staff, candidates or members of the public who contact us, unless they ask us to and it is safe. We do not publish details that could identify someone indirectly.
  • Right of reply. If an item describes what a named organisation has done or said, that organisation can ask us to add its response. We will add a fair summary and update the item's "Updated" time.
  • Facts, not forecasts. If a figure is not yet confirmed, the headline and the item say so. A hope or a claim is never reported as a decision.
  • Reporting an error. Email andrew@policepay.co.uk or use the contact page and tell us the item, the figure and your source. A correction is added to the item as a dated note saying what it said and what it says now, the item's "Updated" time changes and the correction is listed in our public corrections log.

Who runs the news desk, what it never covers and how it is funded: About Police Pay News.

What We Won't Do

  • We won't present a forecast or an internal estimate as if it were an official confirmed figure.
  • We won't let a commercial link change what a page says. A few pages carry clearly labelled affiliate links; see our Affiliate Disclosure.
  • We won't claim affiliation with the Home Office, a police force, the Police Federation or any pension administrator. We have none.
  • We won't give individual legal, financial or pension advice through this site's content. See our Terms of Service.
  • We won't leave a known factual error live once we're aware of it. See our Corrections Policy.

Found something that looks wrong? Read how to report it, or go straight to Contact.