Police Pay Rise 2026/27: 3.5% Confirmed (England & Wales)

How the PRRB Process Works

The Police Remuneration Review Body is an independent advisory group that examines police pay and conditions. It is not a negotiating body — police officers in England and Wales do not have the right to strike, which is why the review body process exists in their place.

Each year the PRRB receives evidence from:

• The Home Office (affordability and government position)
• The NPCC (operational and workforce perspective)
• The Police Federation (frontline officer representation)
• The Police Superintendents' Association (superintendent ranks)
• Other bodies including the College of Policing

The PRRB weighs all submissions and makes an independent recommendation to the Home Secretary. The government can accept the recommendation, accept it with modifications, or reject it — though rejection is rare.

Has the PRRB Ever Recommended More Than the Government Proposed?

Yes, consistently in recent years. The PRRB recommended 4.2% for 2025/26 despite the Home Office saying it could only afford a lower figure. It recommended 4.75% for 2024/25 and 7% for 2023/24. In each case the government accepted the recommendation, finding additional funding to cover the difference.

The 2026/27 award followed the same pattern: 3.5% against the Home Office's 2.5%.

Police Pay Scales Before and After the 2026 Award

You can see the full breakdown including estimated take-home for every rank and pay point on the pay scales page.

Constable Pay Scale (post-April 2013 entrants)

Police pay points are always set to a multiple of £3, so the award is rounded to the nearest £3 rather than the nearest £1. That rule reproduces every one of the Police Federation's published 2024 and 2025 figures exactly, where simple rounding gets a third of them wrong.

It does mean some of our figures sit £1 either side of the numbers quoted in press coverage. Until the Federation publishes its official 2026 tables, treat any single point as accurate to within a few pounds.

Higher ranks

Met and City of London inspectors and chief inspectors are on separate, higher London scales, before London allowances: inspectors £68,788–£74,206 (previously £66,462–£71,697) and chief inspectors £75,619–£78,510 (previously £73,062–£75,855). Superintendent and chief superintendent intermediate points are approximate.

Why the Headline Percentage Doesn't Tell the Whole Story

A 3.5% pay rise sounds straightforward. The amount that actually lands in your bank account is a different matter.

Pension Contributions Interact With the Pay Rise

Police pension contributions under PPS 2015 are tiered based on your pensionable pay. A pay rise can push you into a higher contribution band, meaning more goes towards pension before tax is calculated.

The current tiers (effective 1 April 2026) are:

• Up to £37,035 → 12.88%
• £37,036 to £79,587 → 13.88%
• £79,588 and above → 14.22%

A constable on PP5 (£37,737 before the award) was already in the 13.88% tier. The 3.5% rise took them to £39,058 — remaining in the same tier, so their pension deduction increased proportionally.

An officer earning just below a tier threshold faces a more significant impact. If the pay rise pushes their pensionable pay above £37,035, their contribution rate jumps from 12.88% to 13.88% — partially offsetting the gross pay increase.

Tax and National Insurance Apply to the Increase

Income tax at 20% and National Insurance at 8% apply to earnings above the relevant thresholds. For every £1,000 of gross pay increase, a basic rate taxpayer takes home approximately £720 — less if pension contributions also increase.

This is why a 3.5% gross pay rise rarely translates to a 3.5% increase in monthly take-home pay. See how the calculator handles these interactions for a full explanation of the methodology.

London Weighting

Officers in the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police receive London Weighting of £3,260 (pensionable) plus a London Allowance of up to £6,819 (non-pensionable) — a combined £10,079 per year from 1 September 2026. Both were uplifted by the same 3.5% as basic pay, from £3,150 and £6,588 respectively.

How to Work Out Your Take-Home Pay

Working out your actual take-home after pension, tax and National Insurance is genuinely complex — particularly around tier thresholds and how pension interacts with tax relief. The Police Take Home Pay Calculator handles all of this automatically, and the police pay rise calculator lets you compare your before-and-after monthly take-home side by side.

Select your rank, pay point and location and it shows your exact monthly take-home with a full breakdown. It covers:

• All ranks from Constable to Chief Superintendent
• Both pre and post April 2013 constable pay scales
• PPS 2015 tiered pension contributions
• London Weighting and South East allowances
• Overtime at all rates (casual, rest day, public holiday)
• Part-time contracted hours
• Student loan deductions (Plans 1, 2, 4, 5 and Postgraduate)
• Custom tax codes including 1300L for officers claiming Fed relief

The calculator uses the September 2026 scales. If the Police Federation's official tables differ from our figures on any point, we correct them.

Recent Police Pay History

To put the 2026/27 award in context, here is the recent trend.

The four above-inflation awards between 2022 and 2026 restored some of the real-terms losses accumulated between 2010 and 2022. The 3.5% for 2026/27 is broadly in line with the wider public-sector settlements for the year.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

Police Scotland

Police Scotland negotiates pay separately, and its year runs from April. Its 2026/27 scales took effect on 1 April 2026: a constable now starts on £34,001 and reaches £54,597 at the top of the scale. Scottish officers are on a longer pay spine and subject to Scottish income tax rates, whose 42% higher rate starts at £43,663. See the Police Scotland calculator.

PSNI

PSNI pay follows the England and Wales pay structure, but awards go through a separate Northern Ireland review body and the Department of Justice, on a later timetable. The 2025/26 4.2% increase reached PSNI officers only in January 2026, backdated. The PSNI 2026/27 award has not yet been announced; PSNI officers are still on the 2025/26 scales (constables £31,164 to £50,256), so the 3.5% above does not yet apply to them.

PSNI officers also receive the Northern Ireland Transitional Allowance (NITA) of £4,283 per year. See the PSNI calculator.