Police on-call allowance 2026
£35 for each day you spend any time on call, constable to chief superintendent. What counts as a day, what happens when you are called in, whether on call is working time, what you keep after tax, and a calculator for your own month.
Independent information, not advice · Sources checked 14 October 2026 · England and Wales, with Scotland noted
In England and Wales the on-call allowance is £35 for each day on which you spend any time on call, where a day is a 24-hour period starting at a time your force fixes. It has been £35 since 1 September 2025 (up from £25) and did not change with the 2026 pay award. Constables, sergeants, inspectors, chief inspectors, superintendents and chief superintendents all get the same rate. It is taxed but not pensionable, so a top-of-scale constable on call 4 days a month gets £140 gross and keeps about £109. If you are called in, constables and sergeants are paid overtime on top; inspectors and above are not.
On-call allowance calculator
Pick your rank and pay point, enter how many on-call days you do in a typical month, and add unsocial hours if you work nights. It shows the monthly and yearly gross, and what is left after income tax and National Insurance on top of your basic pay. Free, and nothing you enter is stored.
On-call allowance at £35 a day
Gross a month
£140
Gross a year
£1,680
After tax and NI, a month
£84.03
After tax and NI, per day on call
£21.01
At the old £25 rate the same days paid £1,200 a year gross. The £35 rate applies from 1 September 2025.
Together, after deductions
You keep about 60%: £1,680 gross a year becomes £1,008 after £638 income tax and £34 National Insurance. The top slice of the allowance is taxed at 40% plus 2% NI.
No pension contribution is taken from these allowances and they add nothing to your pension: they are not pensionable pay. Pension contribution used on your basic pay: 13.88%.
If you are called in
Time worked after a recall is paid on top of the allowance: overtime at time and a third between shifts, or rest day and public holiday rates if it falls on one. The allowance itself is not pay for work done.
This is an estimate, not advice. It uses 2026/27 England and Wales tax and NI on an annual basis, assumes the same days every month and no student loan, and does not cover Police Scotland or the PSNI. Your payslip is the final word. Nothing you enter is stored.
Assumptions and limits
- On-call allowance at £35 per on-call day (Annex U paragraph 13, from 1 September 2025). England and Wales only.
- Unsocial hours allowance at 10% of your hourly rate (annual basic pay × 6/12520) for each full hour worked between 8pm and 6am, constables to chief inspectors (Annex U paragraph 10).
- Pay points are the 2026/27 figures from 1 September 2026 used across this site (2025/26 official scales plus 3.5%).
- Tax and NI are 2026/27 England and Wales rates worked out over a whole year, as if the same days happen every month. Pension contributions (12.88%, 13.88% or 14.22%) are taken from basic pay before tax; nothing is taken from the allowances because they are not pensionable.
- Not included: student loans, the High Income Child Benefit Charge, Scottish income tax, salary sacrifice, any overtime you earn when called in, and any local enhancement your force pays.
- This is an estimate, not advice. Your payslip and your force's payroll team are the final word.
The rule, word for word
The on-call allowance is one of the allowances the Home Secretary sets under regulation 34 of the Police Regulations 2003. The current wording is paragraph 13 of the determination called Annex U, as substituted by an amending determination made on 11 June 2026. That amendment came into force retrospectively from 1 September 2025 and was published with Home Office Circular 011/2026 (published 31 July 2026).
“a) A member of the rank of constable, sergeant, inspector, chief inspector, superintendent or chief superintendent shall receive an allowance of £35 in respect of each day on which they spend any time on-call.
b) In sub-paragraph (a) “day” means a period of 24 hours commencing at such time or times as the chief officer shall fix after consultation with the branch board and the elected officials of the local Police Superintendents’ Association Branch, and the chief officer may fix different times in relation to different groups of members.”
Four things follow directly from that text:
- It is a flat sum per day, not per hour. One hour on call and 24 hours on call in the same period both earn £35.
- “Any time” is enough. There is no minimum number of hours in a day, and the determination sets no minimum number of on-call days before payment starts.
- Your force decides when the day starts, and can fix different start times for different teams. That decides how many payments a weekend on call earns (see below).
- The determination does not define “on call”. In practice forces treat it as being formally rostered to be contactable and able to return to duty, as opposed to the general possibility that any officer can be recalled. Thames Valley Police Federation describes it as being “required to be contactable and deployable to recall to duty immediately”.
The PRRB has accepted the NPCC’s view that the allowance is “a compensatory payment as opposed to a payment for work undertaken”. That matters later: it is why work done when you are called in is paid (or not) under separate rules, and why the rate is not uprated each year.
On-call allowance increases since 2013
The allowance has gone up four times in its life, always by a fixed amount, never by the percentage pay award. The 2025 increase was the largest: £10, or 40%.
| From | Rate per day | Change | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 April 2013 | £15 | n/a | Introduced after the Winsor review and the Police Arbitration Tribunal (Home Office Circular 007/2013) |
| 1 September 2019 | £20 | +£5 (33%) | PRRB 5th report (2019), accepted |
| 1 September 2024 | £25 | +£5 (25%) | PRRB 10th report (2024), interim increase pending the NPCC review, accepted |
| 1 September 2025 | £35 | +£10 (40%) | PRRB 11th report (2025) recommendation 2, accepted; Annex U amended 11 June 2026 |
Why £35? In its 2025 evidence the NPCC reported a Korn Ferry review of on-call arrangements outside policing, which found a weekday average of about £33. It proposed a figure just above that because officers are on call at weekends as part of a 24/7 service. The PRRB also noted that police staff receive a standby allowance of £36.13 (PRRB 2025, paragraphs 4.71 and 4.77).
Why it did not rise in 2026. The PRRB’s 2026 report made no recommendation on the rate. It repeated that the allowance is compensation rather than pay, and focused instead on how on call is managed (see what is changing). The NPCC’s review had decided against a mechanism to uprate the allowance each year (PRRB 2025, paragraph 4.80). So the 3.5% award from 1 September 2026 does not touch it.
| On-call days a month | Gross a month | Gross a year | Kept after tax and NI a year | A year at the old £25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | £35 | £420 | £278 | £300 |
| 2 | £70 | £840 | £521 | £600 |
| 4 | £140 | £1,680 | £1,008 | £1,200 |
| 7 | £245 | £2,940 | £1,739 | £2,100 |
| 10 | £350 | £4,200 | £2,470 | £3,000 |
| 14 | £490 | £5,880 | £3,444 | £4,200 |
A sergeant at the top of the scale is just below the higher rate threshold, so part of the allowance is taxed at 40%. That is why the “kept” column is lower than a constable’s would be.
What counts as an on-call day
Because a day is a 24-hour period that starts at a time your force fixes, the same stretch of on call can earn a different number of payments depending on that start time. Take an officer on call from 5pm on Friday to 7am on Monday, with no other on-call time:
| How the force fixes the day | Periods with any on-call time | Payments | Allowance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Force fixes the day as midnight to midnight | Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday each contain some on-call time | 4 | £140 |
| Force fixes the day as 7am to 7am | Fri 7am to Sat 7am, Sat to Sun, Sun to Mon 7am. On call ends at 7am Monday, when the next period starts | 3 | £105 |
| Force fixes the day as 5pm to 5pm | Fri 5pm to Sat 5pm, Sat to Sun, Sun 5pm to Mon 5pm | 3 | £105 |
These are illustrations of how the wording works, not any force’s actual times. Your force’s start time should be in its pay and allowances policy or on-call procedure, because the determination requires the chief officer to fix it after consultation. Ask payroll if you cannot find it.
- On call that runs a few minutes into the next period counts as another day, because the test is “any time”.
- Being on call during part of a period in which you also work a normal shift still counts. The determination does not exclude days on which you are on duty.
- Different teams can have different start times, so two officers on the same weekend can be paid for a different number of days.
- The allowance is claimed, usually after the event. In Norfolk and Suffolk it is claimed on an online form, authorised, and paid monthly in arrears.
Who gets it (and who does not)
| Rank | On-call allowance | If called in | Unsocial hours allowance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Constable, sergeant | Yes, £35 a day | Yes: overtime for a recall between shifts, rest day and public holiday rates (Annexes G and H) | Yes |
| Inspector, chief inspector | Yes, £35 a day | No overtime. A rest day or public holiday worked gives a day off in lieu (Annex H) | Yes |
| Superintendent, chief superintendent | Yes, £35 a day | No overtime. Rest days in lieu; the PRRB has asked for a time off in lieu framework for hours worked on call by April 2027 | No |
| Chief officers (ACC and above) | Not listed in paragraph 13 | Separate chief officer terms | No |
| Police Scotland (all federated ranks) | Separate PNBS rate: £43.68 from 1 April 2026 | Scottish regulations, not covered here | Scottish rules |
Superintendents get the same allowance, not a different scheme. When the allowance was introduced in 2013 it was for the federated ranks only. The current paragraph 13 names superintendents and chief superintendents alongside the federated ranks, at the same rate. The Superintendents’ Association says its members became eligible in April 2020. What superintendents do not get is overtime, so for them the allowance is the only money for being on call; the separate recognition of workload payment (up to £5,000 a year, at the chief officer’s discretion, for time served in eligible roles until 30 June 2029) can take into account unusually frequent antisocial hours or high levels of out of hours contact where other compensation is insufficient (Annex U paragraph 16).
Protection officers. An officer entitled to Protection Allowance at rate 2 or rate 3 cannot also claim the on-call allowance, or claim it instead (Annex U paragraph 13A(h)). Rate 1 is not covered by that bar.
How many officers get it. The Police Earnings Census figures in the PRRB’s 2026 report show on-call is mostly a supervisory and senior-rank payment. The medians are from April 2024 to March 2025, when the rate was £20 and then £25, so today’s figures would be higher.
| Rank | Share receiving it | Median paid a year (to those receiving it) |
|---|---|---|
| Constable | 7% | £700 |
| Sergeant | 16% | £775 |
| Inspector | 39% | £695 |
| Chief inspector | 67% | £720 |
| Superintendent | 84% | £925 |
| Chief superintendent | 82% | £780 |
Source: PRRB 12th report (2026), Appendix E, Tables E.2 and E.3 (OPRB analysis of Police Earnings Census data, Home Office). In 2025 the NPCC told the PRRB that the median payment was equivalent to between 2.6 and 3.6 on-call periods a month.
What you keep, by rank (4 on-call days a month)
The allowance is the same £35 for everyone, but what reaches your bank depends on your tax band. All figures are 2026/27, outside London, no student loan, with the allowance added on top of basic pay.
| Rank and pay | Gross a month | Gross a year | Kept a month | Kept per day | Tax + NI on the top slice |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Constable, pay point 4 £36,335 | £140 | £1,680 | £100.80 | £25.20 | 20% + 8% |
| Constable, pay point 7 £52,015 | £140 | £1,680 | £109.20 | £27.30 | 20% + 2% |
| Sergeant, pay point 4 £58,175 | £140 | £1,680 | £84.03 | £21.01 | 40% + 2% |
| Inspector, point 3 (outside London) £71,396 | £140 | £1,680 | £81.20 | £20.30 | 40% + 2% |
| Chief inspector, point 3 (outside London) £75,709 | £140 | £1,680 | £81.20 | £20.30 | 40% + 2% |
| Superintendent, point 4 £102,481 | £140 | £1,680 | £81.20 | £20.30 | 40% + 2% |
| Chief superintendent, point 3 £119,837 | £140 | £1,680 | £53.20 | £13.30 | 60% + 2% |
- Constables below the higher rate band keep most: about £25.20 of each £35 day on point 4, after 20% tax and 8% NI.
- Top-of-scale constables pay only 2% NI on it because their gross pay is already above the NI upper limit, so they keep £27.30 a day.
- Inspectors and above are higher rate taxpayers: 40% tax plus 2% NI leaves about £20.30 a day.
- Chief superintendents in the personal allowance taper lose an extra 20p of allowance for every pound, so the effective rate is 60% plus NI and they keep about £13.30 of each £35.
Three scenarios
- Detective sergeant on a major crime rota. Top of the sergeant scale (£58,175), on call 6 days a month and working 20 night hours a month between 8pm and 6am. On-call: £210 a month gross. Unsocial hours: £55.76 a month. Together £3,189 a year gross, about £1,884 after tax and NI. Any call-out is overtime on top.
- Superintendent covering force duty officer. Point 4 (£102,481), on call 10 days a month. That is £4,200 a year gross and about £2,436 after 40% tax and 2% NI, or £20.30 for each day of being reachable. Hours worked when called out earn no overtime; that is the gap the April 2027 time off in lieu framework is meant to address.
- Constable on a specialist team’s weekend rota. Pay point 4 (£36,335), on call one weekend a month that the force counts as 3 days. That is £105 a month gross and about £76 after deductions, plus overtime for any call-out.
On-call adds nothing to your pension
Your police pension is built only on pensionable pay: basic pay, London Weighting, temporary salary and pay on temporary promotion, not allowances such as on-call. If you are weighing a role with heavy on-call against promotion or a move, our pension calculator (our own product) shows what your basic pay builds. The estimate is free; the full report is £47.
Open the pension calculatorCalled in while on call: what you are paid
The allowance pays for being available. Work you actually do after a call-out is paid, or compensated, under the normal rules for your rank. The on-call allowance is not reduced because you were called in, and being called in does not replace it.
Constables and sergeants
- Called in between two rostered shifts: a recall to duty, paid as overtime at time and a third, including reasonable travelling time. Norfolk and Suffolk’s policy, for example, says you must work at least 15 minutes including travel before you can claim, and you are then paid for completed 15-minute periods.
- Called in on a rest day: rest day working rules apply (time and a half where less than 15 days’ notice was given, with a minimum period).
- Called in on a public holiday: double time, with a 4-hour minimum.
- Night hours: any hours worked between 8pm and 6am also earn the unsocial hours allowance.
The detail, with worked figures, is in our police overtime guide and the overtime calculator.
Inspectors and chief inspectors
No overtime pay. If the call-out falls on a rest day or public holiday you get a day off in lieu. Hours between 8pm and 6am earn the unsocial hours allowance; Norfolk and Suffolk’s policy confirms full-time inspectors and chief inspectors called in get unsocial hours “but not overtime”. Part-time inspectors and chief inspectors are paid plain time up to 40 hours a week there.
Superintendents and chief superintendents
No overtime and no unsocial hours allowance. Time worked builds up rest days in lieu where the rules allow. The Superintendents’ Association told the PRRB that members with heavy on-call and command roles “often built up Rest Days in Lieu” and struggled to take them. The PRRB’s 2026 recommendation 6 asks the NPCC to bring in a framework for time off in lieu at plain time for hours worked on call, for inspecting and superintending ranks, by April 2027 at the latest.
On call on rest days and annual leave
There is no line in paragraph 13 that limits when you can be put on call. What exists is the national position and local policy:
- The NPCC position. The NPCC told the PRRB in 2025 that “officers should not be rostered on call when on leave/rest days” and that national guidance would reconfirm the regulations. The PRRB said it was “very concerned” by evidence that officers are on call while on annual leave, and the NPCC accepted from staff surveys that this “does appear to happen sometimes” (PRRB 2025, paragraph 4.78).
- The guidance is still not out. A year later the PRRB noted the guidance “has not yet happened” and recommended it be agreed by the end of 2026 (PRRB 2026, paragraph 4.74 and recommendation 7).
- Federation view. Thames Valley Police Federation’s position is that officers should not be expected to be on call on a rest day, which it describes as a 24-hour period free from work. That is the Federation’s view, not a regulation.
- Local policy example. Norfolk and Suffolk say annual leave “should be a period of undisturbed rest from duty” and officers are “not obligated to volunteer to be on-call whilst on annual leave”. The same policy offers two payments for a full 24-hour period on call on a rest day or public holiday when not otherwise on duty, but still quotes them as “two £25 payments, a total of £50”, so that line appears not to have been updated for the £35 rate. If you are in Norfolk or Suffolk, ask payroll which figure applies.
Ask for the request in writing, check your force’s on-call procedure, and speak to your Federation or Superintendents’ Association representative before agreeing. Being recalled from annual leave has its own compensation rules: see can police recall you from leave? and can police cancel a rest day?
Is time on call working time?
This is the question officers ask most, and the honest answer is: it depends on the constraints, and the classification affects your working time limits and rest, not your pay.
Officers are covered by the Working Time Regulations
Regulation 41 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 treats holding the office of constable as employment by the chief officer, so the Regulations apply to officers. Regulation 18(2)(a) disapplies some provisions where characteristics peculiar to services such as the police “inevitably conflict” with them. Working time is defined in regulation 2 as time when you are “working, at his employer’s disposal and carrying out his activity or duties”. The NPCC told the PRRB in 2025 that chief constables should consider the work-life balance implications of on-call and have mechanisms to ensure compliance with the Working Time Regulations.
The case law
- Matzak (C-518/15, 21 February 2018). A Belgian volunteer firefighter had to stay at home on stand-by and respond to calls within eight minutes. The Court of Justice held that this stand-by time was working time, because having to be at a place set by the employer and reach work within eight minutes objectively limited his chance to devote himself to his personal and social interests. A worker who only has to be contactable is in a different position. The Court also said the directive does not deal with pay: national law can pay stand-by time differently from active work.
- Radiotelevizija Slovenija (C-344/19) and Stadt Offenbach am Main (C-580/19), 9 March 2021. The Grand Chamber refined the test. Stand-by time as a whole is working time only where the constraints “objectively and very significantly” affect your ability to manage your free time and pursue your own interests. Courts must look at the reasonableness of the response time (taking into account kit you must carry and facilities such as a service vehicle with blue-light privileges) and the average frequency of call-outs. Difficulties caused by your own choices, or by where you happen to live, do not count. Otherwise only the time actually worked counts. Pay for stand-by remains a matter for national rules, and employers still may not set stand-by so long or so frequent that it risks health and safety.
What that means in the UK now
Matzak was decided before the end of the Brexit transition period, so it remains part of the case law UK courts follow when they interpret the Working Time Regulations (now called assimilated case law), unless a higher court departs from it. The 2021 judgments came after 31 December 2020: under section 6 of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 UK courts are not bound by them but “may have regard” to them. We found no UK court or tribunal decision on police on-call specifically.
Applied to policing, our reading is:
- An officer on call at home who must answer the phone and give advice, or attend within an hour or two, is usually not working all that time; the calls and any attendance are working time.
- An officer required to stay at a set place, ready to deploy within minutes, with frequent call-outs, is closer to Matzak, and the whole period may be working time.
- If on-call time is working time, it counts towards the 48-hour weekly average and affects daily and weekly rest. It does not by itself entitle you to overtime or extra pay.
This is general information about how the courts approach the question, not legal advice about your role. If your on-call conditions are tight, raise it with your staff association. Our guide to the Working Time Directive and the police covers the 48-hour average and rest rules.
Voluntary or required? How forces run on call
The regulations say what you are paid for on call, not whether you must do it. In practice:
- Role-based rotas. On call is usually attached to roles: senior investigating officers and major crime teams, public protection, firearms and public order command, force incident or duty officer cover, specialist search, hostage and crisis negotiation, and the superintending duty and gold cover described to the PRRB. Some job adverts for these roles state the on-call commitment.
- Volunteer rotas. Some teams fill on call from volunteers. Norfolk and Suffolk’s policy, for example, keeps the rotas on the intranet and treats on call during annual leave as voluntary.
- Frequency varies widely. The PSA’s 2025 survey found more than 95% of superintendent respondents did on call, typically 1 to 14 days a month. The NPCC’s earlier figure for the median officer was 2.6 to 3.6 periods a month.
- Response times are set locally. We found no national response-time standard. That is one of the things the national guidance is meant to clarify (“typical on-call roles, frequency, when on call becomes duty time, and monitoring and review arrangements”, PRRB 2026 paragraph 4.74).
The PRRB has said more than once that on-call allowance “may be providing compensation to officers for poor management practices” and should be set at a level that deters them (PRRB 2025, paragraph 4.78). If on call has become routine cover for vacancies, that is a workforce issue to raise, not just a pay one.
Tax, National Insurance and pension
- Taxable. The allowance is earnings, paid through payroll with PAYE income tax at your marginal rate.
- National Insurance. Class 1 NI applies: 8% if your monthly pay is below the upper earnings limit, 2% above it. NI is worked out per pay period, so a month with lots of on-call days can tip more of that month’s pay over the monthly limit.
- Not pensionable. Pensionable earnings in the 2015 scheme are pay under the Police Regulations (regulation 24 and Annex F), such as basic pay and London Weighting. Reg 34 allowances, including on-call, are not. No contribution is taken and nothing is added to your pension. The same is true of the unsocial hours allowance.
- Tax band effects. On-call can push a sergeant near the top of the scale into the 40% band, and push a chief superintendent further into the personal allowance taper. The calculator shows your marginal rate.
- Overtime and pay rises. The allowance does not change your hourly rate, so it does not change your overtime rates.
What is changing, and what was asked for
The PRRB’s 2026 report made two recommendations about on call:
- Recommendation 6: the NPCC develops and agrees a framework allowing inspecting and superintending ranks time off in lieu, at plain time and within defined limits, for hours worked while on call, for implementation by April 2027 at the latest.
- Recommendation 7: the NPCC finalises its national on-call guidance and takes it to the Police Consultative Forum, for implementation by the end of 2026 at the latest.
The Government’s July 2026 pay statement did not address these individually. Our 2027/28 pay tracker follows both.
| Who | What they asked for | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Police Superintendents' Association | £60 per 24-hour period for superintending ranks, and pensionable | Not adopted (PRRB 2025 and 2026) |
| Police Federation | £36.13 (the police staff standby rate), doubled on a rest day or public holiday, five times on annual leave, uprated with pay and pensionable | Not adopted; the PRRB recommended £35 |
| NPCC (national police chiefs) | £25 to £35, based on a Korn Ferry market review (weekday average about £33) | Recommended by the PRRB and accepted from 1 September 2025 |
| Metropolitan Police | Supported £35 but asked for it from April 2026 for cost reasons | Implemented from 1 September 2025 |
Police Scotland and the PSNI
Scotland has its own regulations and negotiating body. The Police Negotiating Board for Scotland set the on-call allowance at £43.68 from 1 April 2026 (£36.40 from 1 April 2025), and on-call was excluded from the general percentage increase that year. We have not checked the Scottish definition of a day, so do not apply the England and Wales rules above to Police Scotland. Scottish income tax bands also change what you keep.
Northern Ireland: the PSNI has its own determinations. We have not verified a PSNI on-call rate and this page does not cover it.
Checklist: questions to ask your force
- What time does the on-call “day” start for my team, and is it the same for every team?
- How do I claim, and by when? Is it paid the following month?
- What response time and location restrictions apply when I am on call? (This matters for working time.)
- Is my on-call rota voluntary or a condition of the role? How often am I expected to cover?
- Will I be rostered on call on rest days or annual leave, and if so, what extra do I get?
- When I am called in, how is the time recorded and paid (overtime, rest day rate, day in lieu)?
- Is travelling time on a call-out counted, and can I claim mileage?
- How does on call count towards my working time and rest under the Working Time Regulations?
- For inspectors and above: how are rest days in lieu from call-outs tracked, and how long do I have to take them?
- Does the force pay anything locally on top of the national £35?
Myths
- “On-call allowance is £35 per 24 hours on call.” It is £35 per 24-hour period in which you spend any time on call, so 24 hours on call can span two periods and earn £70.
- “It went up with the 3.5% pay rise.” No. It is a fixed sum, last changed on 1 September 2025.
- “Superintendents have a separate on-call scheme.” They are named in the same paragraph at the same rate. What differs is that they get no overtime when called in.
- “On-call counts towards my pension.” It does not. Both staff associations have asked for that; it has not been agreed.
- “On call is always working time under Matzak.” Only where the constraints very significantly limit your free time. And even then it affects working time limits, not pay.
- “If I get called in I lose the allowance.” No. The allowance is for being available; work done is paid or compensated separately.
- “The allowance replaces overtime for a call-out.” Not for constables and sergeants, who get both.
Not verified
We looked for these on 14 October 2026 and could not confirm them from a primary source.
- The date superintendents became eligible. The Superintendents’ Association says April 2020. We did not find the Home Office circular; the earliest text we read naming superintendents is the January 2025 amendment.
- A UK ruling on police on-call and working time. We found none. The section above is how the general case law would apply, not a decided police case.
- The NPCC national on-call guidance. Not published at the time of writing, so we cannot say what it will set for frequency, response times or rest days.
- Your force’s day start time and any local enhancements. Set locally; Norfolk and Suffolk’s rest day enhancement still quotes £25.
- Police Scotland’s definition of an on-call day, and the PSNI rate. Not checked.
- Whether the Government will accept recommendations 6 and 7 in a way that changes on-call pay or time off. Its July 2026 statement did not address them individually.
Frequently asked questions
How much is the police on-call allowance in 2026?
£35 for each day on which you spend any time on call, in England and Wales. That rate has applied since 1 September 2025. It is set by paragraph 13 of Annex U to the Police Regulations 2003, as amended by a determination made on 11 June 2026 and published with Home Office Circular 011/2026 (published 31 July 2026).
Did the on-call allowance go up with the 2026 pay rise?
No. The 3.5% from 1 September 2026 applies to pay points, not to fixed-sum allowances. The last increase was from £25 to £35 from 1 September 2025, and the PRRB's 2026 report made no recommendation to change the rate. The NPCC's review decided against an automatic yearly uprating because the allowance is compensation, not pay for work.
Is the on-call allowance paid per 24 hours or per day?
Per 'day', and the determination defines a day as a period of 24 hours starting at a time (or times) your chief officer fixes after consulting the Federation and the Superintendents' Association. Any time on call within one of those 24-hour periods earns one payment. On call across two periods earns two.
Do superintendents get the on-call allowance?
Yes. The current paragraph 13 lists constables, sergeants, inspectors, chief inspectors, superintendents and chief superintendents, all at the same £35. The Superintendents' Association says its members became eligible in April 2020. Chief officers are not listed.
Is the police on-call allowance pensionable?
No. It is an allowance under regulation 34 of the Police Regulations 2003, not pay under regulation 24, so it is not pensionable earnings in the 2015 scheme. No pension contribution is taken from it and it does not add to your pension. The Superintendents' Association and the Federation have both asked for it to be made pensionable; that has not happened.
Is on-call allowance taxed?
Yes. It is paid through payroll with income tax and National Insurance. A constable at the top of the scale keeps about £27.30 of each £35 day; a sergeant at the top of the scale, whose pay crosses into the higher rate band, keeps about £21.01.
Do I get overtime if I am called in while on call?
Constables and sergeants do: the time worked is paid as overtime on top of the allowance (time and a third between shifts, with the rest day or public holiday rate if the call-in falls on one). Inspectors and above get no overtime pay; a rest day or public holiday worked gives a day off in lieu instead.
Can I be put on call on a rest day or annual leave?
The NPCC told the PRRB in 2025 that officers should not be rostered on call when on annual leave or rest days, and said national guidance would reconfirm that. The PRRB said staff surveys showed it does sometimes happen. We found no regulation that forbids it outright. Norfolk and Suffolk's policy says officers are not obliged to volunteer for on call while on annual leave.
Does time on call count as working time?
Only the time you actually work counts automatically. Under the Court of Justice's case law, on-call time as a whole is working time only where the constraints, such as a very short response time or having to stay at a set place, objectively and very significantly limit what you can do with your free time. That decides Working Time Regulations limits, not pay. We found no UK court ruling on police on-call specifically.
Can my force make me go on call?
The regulations set the payment, not whether on call is voluntary. Some roles are advertised with an on-call requirement, and forces set rotas locally. The NPCC's national on-call guidance, which the PRRB wants agreed by the end of 2026, is meant to cover typical on-call roles, frequency and when on call becomes duty time.
Can I claim on-call allowance and protection allowance together?
Not with Protection Allowance rate 2 or 3. Paragraph 13A(h) of Annex U says a member entitled to either of those rates cannot claim an on-call allowance in addition to, or instead of, the protection allowance.
What is the on-call allowance in Police Scotland?
£43.68 from 1 April 2026 (it was £36.40 from 1 April 2025), set by the Police Negotiating Board for Scotland in Circular 2026/04. Scottish rules on what counts as a day are not covered on this page.
How do I claim on-call allowance?
Through your force's payroll process. In Norfolk and Suffolk, for example, officers claim after the event on an online HR and payroll form, which must be authorised, and it is paid monthly in arrears with salary. Ask your HR or payroll team for your force's form and the time your on-call day starts.
What is changing with police on-call?
Two things the PRRB asked for in its 2026 report: national on-call guidance from the NPCC, agreed through the Police Consultative Forum by the end of 2026, and a framework for inspecting and superintending ranks to get time off in lieu at plain time for hours worked while on call, by April 2027 at the latest.
Sources and how we checked them
Every rule on this page was written from the sources below, all accessed on 14 October 2026. Determinations, legislation and PRRB reports come first. Federation and Superintendents’ Association pages are cited for what those bodies say, not as neutral sources. Spotted something out of date? See our corrections policy.
- Annex U (Amendment): Allowances, determination made 11 June 2026, in force 1 September 2025 (PDF) : Paragraph 13 (on-call £35, definition of day), paragraph 10 (unsocial hours), paragraph 13A(h) (no on-call with Protection Allowance rate 2 or 3). Accessed 14 October 2026.
- Home Office Circular 011/2026: Annexes F, U and DA, Police Regulations 2003 : Published 31 July 2026; implements the 2025 to 2026 pay award. Accessed 14 October 2026.
- Annex U (Amendment): Allowances, determination made 31 January 2025 (PDF) : £25 from 1 September 2024; first version listing superintendent and chief superintendent in the paragraph we read. Accessed 14 October 2026.
- Home Office Circular 007/2013: amendment to the determinations under Police Regulations 2003 : On-call allowance of £15 'for each daily occasion' for federated ranks from 1 April 2013. Accessed 14 October 2026.
- Police Regulations 2003, regulation 34 (allowances) : Allowances are determined by the Secretary of State. Accessed 14 October 2026.
- Police Remuneration Review Body, 11th report (2025) (PDF) : Paragraphs 2.122 to 2.124 and 4.71 to 4.80, recommendation 2 (£25 to £35 from 1 September 2025), history of recommendations. Accessed 14 October 2026.
- Police Remuneration Review Body, 12th report (2026) (PDF) : Paragraphs 4.64 to 4.75 and 4.102, recommendations 6 and 7, Appendix E Tables E.2 and E.3 (Police Earnings Census, FYE 2025). Accessed 14 October 2026.
- Police Pensions Regulations 2015, regulation 33 (pensionable earnings) : Pensionable earnings are pay under the Police Regulations, not reg 34 allowances. Accessed 14 October 2026.
- Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 2 (definition of working time) : Working time is time 'working, at his employer's disposal and carrying out his activity or duties'. Accessed 14 October 2026.
- Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 41 (police service) : Holding the office of constable is treated as employment by the chief officer for the Regulations. Accessed 14 October 2026.
- Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 18(2)(a) : Some provisions do not apply where characteristics peculiar to services such as the police inevitably conflict with them. Accessed 14 October 2026.
- Court of Justice of the EU, press release 14/18, Ville de Nivelles v Matzak (C-518/15), 21 February 2018 (PDF) : Stand-by at home with an eight-minute response time is working time. Accessed 14 October 2026.
- Court of Justice of the EU, press release 35/21, Radiotelevizija Slovenija (C-344/19) and Stadt Offenbach am Main (C-580/19), 9 March 2021 (PDF) : The 'objectively and very significantly' test; pay for stand-by is for national law; health and safety duties still apply. Accessed 14 October 2026.
- European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, section 6 : UK courts are not bound by Court of Justice decisions made on or after 31 December 2020, but may have regard to them. Accessed 14 October 2026.
- Police Negotiating Board for Scotland, Circular 2026/04: allowances : On-call £36.40 from 1 April 2025 and £43.68 from 1 April 2026. Accessed 14 October 2026.
- Norfolk and Suffolk Constabularies, Pay and Allowances (Police Officers) policy, v1.14, published 8 June 2026 (PDF) : Sections 17, 24 and 25: recall, on-call claims, annual leave, unsocial hours. Accessed 14 October 2026.
- Police Superintendents' Association, Allowances : The Association's account of superintending ranks becoming eligible in April 2020. Accessed 14 October 2026.
- Thames Valley Police Federation, On call : The Federation view that officers should not be expected to be on call on a rest day (a branch view, not a rule). Accessed 14 October 2026.
- GOV.UK, Income Tax rates and allowances : 2026/27 bands and the personal allowance taper used in the calculator. Accessed 14 October 2026.
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Disclaimer
PolicePay.co.uk is an independent reference site. It is not affiliated with any police force, the Home Office, the NPCC, the Police Federation or the Police Superintendents’ Association. This page is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice, and it cannot take account of your circumstances. On-call arrangements are set locally: check your force’s policy and payroll, and speak to your staff association about your own case. Details are as checked on 14 October 2026.