What Is The P-Factor?
The Police Federation wants a military-style allowance recognising the risks and restrictions of policing built into pay. Here's exactly what's been proposed, what it would cover, and what's still unresolved.
Trust Notice: Independent summary of published Police Federation and NPCC material.
Not affiliated with the Police Federation, the NPCC, or any force. Refreshed as the campaign develops.
Updated: 11 October 2026 · Next review: September 2027
The Short Answer
The P-Factor is a proposed uplift to police pay that would formally recognise the physical danger, psychological strain and off-duty legal obligations unique to policing — the same principle behind the military's X-Factor allowance for armed forces personnel. It's a Police Federation campaign, not a confirmed pay mechanism: there's no agreed figure yet, and no decision on whether it would sit inside base salary or as a separate supplement.
Why The Federation Is Pushing For It
The P-Factor sits inside the Federation's wider "Copped Enough" fair pay campaign, built on the argument that frontline officer pay has degraded by around 21% in real terms since 2009 while the risks of the job haven't fallen to match. Federation surveys back this up sharply: 92% of officers disagree that they're fairly paid at all, and 85% disagree that they're fairly paid given the specific hazards they face. The P-Factor is the Federation's answer to a structural question — not "give us a one-off catch-up award" but "build the risk of this job permanently into how it's priced."
What It Would Actually Cover
The National Police Chiefs' Council has identified around 12 contributing factors that could make up a P-Factor. The clearest ones:
Physical & psychological hazard
Direct confrontation risk and the cumulative psychological load of the job.
Never truly off-duty
A legal obligation to act against crime even outside working hours — unlike almost any other profession.
Victimisation risk
Officers and their families facing threats or property damage specifically because of the job.
Restriction of rights
Officers can't strike, and face constraints on political activity and outside interests that most jobs don't carry.
What's Still Unresolved
There's no agreed figure, no confirmed timeline, and no decision on mechanism — base pay uplift versus a standalone supplement, similar to how the military's X-Factor is calculated separately from basic service pay. The Federation itself has said further research is needed to settle the principles before any number can be put on it. That's exactly why this page exists: the P-Factor will keep surfacing every time pay evidence goes to the Police Remuneration Review Body, and having one clear, current explainer beats searching a new set of headlines each time it does.
The Wider Retention Picture
The P-Factor campaign doesn't stand alone — it's the pay side of the same story HMICFRS's own inspections have documented on workload and retention. Read our breakdown of what the State of Policing report means for you, or if you're weighing up your own options, see what leaving actually costs you against staying.