PSNI Pay Rise
2026/27 Tracker

Status at 23 October 2026: not announced. The 2026/27 PSNI pay year started on 1 September 2026, but no award for it has been published. Every PSNI officer is still paid on the 2025/26 scale that took effect from 1 September 2025.

In plain terms: the review has been asked for, but nothing has come back yet. The next public sign of progress will be either the PRRB's 12th Northern Ireland report on GOV.UK or an announcement from the Minister of Justice.

The current pay points for every rank are on our PSNI pay scales 2026 page.

Each time we check the primary sources we add a dated line here, newest at the bottom. If the latest entry is more than a few weeks old, check the sources in the "Where the award will be announced" section yourself.

On 24 February 2026 the Justice Minister wrote to the PRRB to start the 2026/27 review for PSNI officers. The letter did three things that matter to officers:

• Started the review. The PRRB was asked to make recommendations for 2026/27.
• Named two allowances. The remit includes the Northern Ireland Transitional Allowance (NITA) and Dog Handlers' Allowance.
• Closed off 2025/26. It confirmed "payments have been made to officers, backdated to 1 September 2025".

The letter also said: "The Northern Ireland Public Sector Pay Policy has not yet been set for 2026/27." The remit asks the PRRB to work under "the principle of broad alignment of PSNI officer pay with their counterparts in England and Wales".

The remit letter does not set a figure, a target or a date for the award. Anyone quoting a PSNI percentage for 2026/27 before the Minister announces one is guessing.

PSNI pay is a Northern Ireland decision, not a Home Office one. The process has five steps:

The business case step is the one that is easy to miss. Even after the Minister accepts a recommendation, the money needs Department of Justice and Department of Finance approval before it reaches payslips. That is part of the reason a PSNI award can be paid some months after the pay year starts.

For how the PRRB works on the England and Wales side, see our police pay award process guide. The steps after the PRRB report are different in Northern Ireland.

The best guide to how a PSNI pay round runs is the last one. This is the 2025/26 round from report to payment:

The result of that round is the scale in force now: constables from £31,163 to £50,257, with NITA up from £4,110 to £4,283, a rise of £173 a year (our arithmetic).

Measured from the 2025/26 dates above (our arithmetic, counting calendar months):

• Report presented to announcement: 7 July 2025 to 19 December 2025, a little over five months.
• Start of the pay year to payment: 1 September 2025 to January 2026 salaries, about four months.
• Announcement to payment: 19 December 2025 to January 2026 salaries, within about a month.

Based on the process the PRRB and the Department of Justice describe, these are the steps still to come. The order is the process; the dates are unknown.

1. The PRRB reports. Its 12th Northern Ireland report would go to the Minister of Justice and later appear on the PRRB's GOV.UK page.
2. The Minister decides. The Minister of Justice decides on the recommendations and announces the award, as happened on 19 December 2025 for 2025/26.
3. The business case is approved. The Department of Justice and the Department of Finance must approve it.
4. PSNI payroll pays it. New rates go into salaries. In 2025/26 the arrears back to 1 September were paid at the same time.

When any of these happens we will update this page and the pay scales page and email everyone who has signed up in the box below.

Until a 2026/27 award is announced and paid, every PSNI officer is paid on the 2025/26 scale. These are the ranges for each rank. Constable figures are the PSNI's published figures; other ranks are the PRRB's recommended figures from 1 September 2025, which the Department of Justice confirmed were paid.

The monthly column is gross, before income tax, National Insurance and the pension contribution. Every point for each rank is on our PSNI pay scales page.

The remit letter names two allowances for the 2026/27 review:

• Northern Ireland Transitional Allowance (NITA): £4,283 a year from 1 September 2025, paid to every officer. Taxable, not pensionable. In 2025/26 the PRRB recommended the same 4.2% uplift for NITA as for pay.
• Dog Handlers' Allowance: the PRRB recommended £2,946 a year from September 2025. Whether it was implemented at exactly that figure was not separately confirmed in the sources we read.

Being named in the remit means the PRRB is asked to look at them. It does not tell you what it will recommend or whether they will change.

NITA is explained in full on our PSNI pay scales page.

In England and Wales the Government awarded police officers 3.5% from 1 September 2026, against a PRRB recommendation of 3.9%. We have taken that from secondary sources (the Police Federation of England and Wales Hertfordshire branch and Police Professional), not from a primary government document.

For the detail, see our England and Wales police pay rise 2026/27 guide.

It is tempting to read across from England and Wales. These are the reasons to be careful:

• Different decision maker. The Home Secretary decides for England and Wales; the Minister of Justice decides for Northern Ireland.
• Different review. The PRRB makes a separate Northern Ireland report with its own remit.
• Different funding step. The PSNI award needs a business case approved by the Department of Justice and the Department of Finance.
• Northern Ireland pay policy. The remit letter said the Northern Ireland Public Sector Pay Policy had not yet been set for 2026/27.
• Allowances in the remit. NITA and Dog Handlers' Allowance are named in the PSNI review. NITA is unique to the PSNI.

The remit's "broad alignment" principle points the PRRB towards England and Wales, which is why that award is worth knowing about. But broad alignment is not a promise of the same percentage or the same timing.

PSNI officers in the 2015 pension scheme pay 13.66% where annualised pensionable earnings are under £60,000 and 14.00% at £60,000 or more, for each scheme year from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2027. A pay rise can only change your band if it moves your pensionable pay across £60,000.

• Constables and sergeants are under £60,000 on the 2025/26 scale and would stay under it at any of the illustrative percentages.
• Every inspector point is already above £60,000.
• NITA is not pensionable, so it never counts towards the £60,000 line.

The Department of Justice has proposed keeping the current rates after March 2027, but final regulations had not been made at 23 October 2026. See our PSNI pension guide.

Back pay (arrears) is what you are owed when a pay award applies from a date before it is paid. The PSNI pay year runs from 1 September, so if an award applies from 1 September but is paid later, you are owed the difference for every month in between.

The 2025/26 precedent

The 2025/26 award applied from 1 September 2025 and was paid in January 2026 salaries. On 24 February 2026 the Minister confirmed "payments have been made to officers, backdated to 1 September 2025". So officers received the new rate from January plus arrears for the months they had been paid on the old rate.

How to estimate your own arrears

1. Take your new annual salary minus your old annual salary.
2. Divide by 12 to get the monthly difference.
3. Multiply by the number of months from the effective date to the month the new rate starts.
4. Do the same for NITA and any allowance that changed.
5. If you moved pay point during that period, work each part separately.

Back pay is paid through payroll as part of your salary, so the usual deductions come off it in the month it is paid. That month's payslip can look unusual. For a fuller explanation of how arrears are taxed, see our police back pay guide, which is written for England and Wales but covers the same payroll principles.

These are the primary sources to watch. We check them for this tracker:

• Department of Justice NI news (justice-ni.gov.uk). The 2025/26 award was announced here on 19 December 2025.
• GOV.UK Police Remuneration Review Body page. The 12th Northern Ireland report would be listed here.
• Join PSNI "Your Pay Scale". The PSNI publishes its current constable scale and NITA rate here.
• Your payslip. The final authority on what you are actually paid.

Or leave your email in the box below this guide and we will write to you when the award is announced.

• Budget on the 2025/26 scale. Until an award is announced, that is your pay. Use the take-home pay calculator to see your monthly figure.
• Check your increment. If you joined at point 1 and have passed twelve months' service, you should have moved to point 2 (£32,473). That does not depend on the award.
• Keep your payslips. When an award arrives with arrears, you will want your September onwards payslips to check the back pay.
• Do not spend money you have not been awarded. No PSNI figure exists yet.
• Sign up for the alert. The box below this guide.

• "PSNI officers got 3.5%." That is England and Wales. No PSNI award had been published at 23 October 2026.
• "The remit letter set the figure." It did not. It started the review and named NITA and Dog Handlers' Allowance.
• "The award will definitely be backdated to 1 September." The 2025/26 award was. The terms of the 2026/27 award are not known until it is announced.
• "The PRRB decides." The PRRB recommends. The Minister of Justice decides and the business case needs DoJ and Department of Finance approval.
• "A pay rise will push me into the 14% band." Only if your pensionable pay crosses £60,000. NITA does not count.