Human Resources - On call Police Officers protocol (L1660)

1.0 Summary of Changes

1.1 This protocol has been updated on its 2 yearly review as follows:

• Link reference in 3.4.1.2 corrected;
• Within section 7 Head of HR removed and replaced with Director of HR;
• Owner details updated.

2.0 What this Protocol is about

2.1 This protocol applies to police officers authorising or claiming on-call payments and overtime.

2.2 Regulation 34 (13) of the Police Regulations 2003 (Annex U – Allowance) states that an allowance should be paid to Police Officers in relation to “On-call”, with the following criteria:
With effect from 1 September 2019, a member of the rank up to and including Chief Superintendent shall receive an allowance of £20.00 in respect of each day on which they spend any time on call..
In the paragraph above, a “day” means a period of 24 hours commencing at such time or times as the chief officer shall fix after consultation with the joint branch board, and the chief officer may fix different times in relation to different groups of members.

2.3 The overtime provisions within this protocol apply to all police officers of Constable and Sergeant rank, with the exception of paragraph 2.6 that applies to all police officers.

2.4 The purpose of this protocol for authorising or claiming on-call and overtime is to ensure that payment of on-call, overtime or time off in lieu of an allowance is only incurred when management consider it to be necessary in order to maintain the level of service required, or for specific operational reasons. Where practicable, pre-authorisation for overtime should be sought, if this is not possible, authorisation much be gained at the earliest opportunity.

2.5 All claims for on-call payments and overtime allowances must be factual, made with integrity and within the terms of this protocol. All claims must be legitimate and will be paid accurately and promptly.

2.6 All days accrued in lieu of rest days or public holiday working will be re-rostered to a suitable date at the time of the requirement to work a rest day or public holiday. This provision applies to all police officers.

Compliance with this protocol and any governing policy is mandatory. This protocol is not, nor is it intended to be, contractual.

3.0 Detail the Protocol

3.1 Managing requirements for On-Call Provision

3.1.1 For some operational requirements, it is foreseeable that officers may need to be called into work from home. Where this occurs infrequently, officers may be held on a rota to be on-call. On-call is a voluntary arrangement, which needs to be operated with goodwill on both sides (i.e. between the officer and Essex Police / Kent Police).

3.1.2 Where there is a regular and continuous need for an officer to be called into work whilst on-call, it may be necessary to review whether there are sufficient resources in place to operate the on-call arrangements effectively to meet demand.

3.1.3 The need for well-managed on-call arrangements is required, which should be compliant with all current legislation such as the Working Time Regulations and Police Regulations. The on-call arrangements should be based on a rationale concerned with the volume of work and organisational risk against rank and role. The on-call arrangements will be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure the correct procedure sets out how officers will be compensated, if they are required to be on-call.

3.1.4 The Forces also recognise the need to minimise the impact of on-call commitments, and the restrictions that this creates on the private lives of officers, with a view to, wherever possible, ensuring a sensible work/life balance. The Forces should not routinely expect officers to perform on-call on Rest Days or Public Holidays.

3.2 Managing Requirements for Overtime Provision

3.2.1 Overtime must be completed fully and accurately recorded by the claimant. It is claimed via ESS/SAP on an overtime claim form, with the exception of working on a Public Holiday, which are claimed via the automated pre-approved overtime function on ESS / SAP. The overtime claim form must be authorised by a supervisor who is an authorised signatory and is able to confirm the legitimacy of the claim. There is guidance on claiming and authorising overtime via ESS/SAP.

3.2.2 Police officers are not permitted to authorise claims relating to themselves. Any such claims will not be processed.

3.2.3 British Summer Time: Clocks forward/back – Guidance for Police Officers and Police Staff – please refer to L 1000 Protocol – British Summer Time.

3.3 Definitions and Responsibilities of On-Call

3.3.1 An officer will be considered to be on-call when they are required to be available to perform duty commitments at times when they are not scheduled to work. There will be a maximum of seven sessions per week. Payments will only be made where officers are required to make themselves contactable by telephone, in a fit state to provide advice and guidance or attend either their home station or an alternative work venue. Officers will be part of a formal on-call rota and will be aware of the expectations placed upon them from being on-call, this includes ensuring that they check SAP for details of when they are on-call.

3.3.2 Where an officer is on-call, they must remain within reasonable travelling distance, must be contactable by telephone and be able to resume duty at short notice. They will not take any substance that may impair their ability to perform their duties.

3.3.3 The payment will be made to recompense the individuals for keeping themselves ready for duty as part of the on-call rota, irrespective of whether or not the individual was contacted or called out. The payment can only be claimed retrospectively.

3.3.4 Payment will be made at the rate of £20.00 per day.

3.4 Definitions of Overtime

3.4.1 A member of the police force, of the rank of constable or sergeant shall be compensated in respect of time:

• For which they remain on duty after their tour of duty or rostered shift ends;
• For which they are recalled between two tours of duty or rostered shifts; or
• Which forms part of a tour or rostered shift which they are required to begin earlier than the rostered time without due notice and on a day when they have already completed a normal daily period of duty or rostered shift.
  and such time is referred to as overtime.

3.4.1.2 The provisions fully explaining overtime can be found at Regulation 25 and Annex G, via the link in section 3.6.3.

3.4.2 Planned / rostered Overtime

3.4.2.1 Where officers are informed at or before the start of their shift that they will be required to remain on duty after the shift ends and they work less than 15 minutes’ overtime, they will not be eligible for any allowance. If they work between 15 and 29 minutes’ overtime, they will be paid for the first 15 minutes only. If they work 30 or more minutes, they will be eligible for overtime for each completed 15-minute period.

3.4.3 Casual Overtime

3.4.3.1 This applies where officers are not informed at the start of their rostered shift that they will be required to remain on duty after their shift ends. On each of the first four occasions in any week when they work casual overtime, not having been informed at the start of the shift that this would be required, the first 30 minutes of such overtime worked is disregarded in calculating the overtime allowance due. This disregard applies also to equivalent time off, should they choose time off in lieu of paid overtime. Also, if an officer is not informed at the start of their rostered shift that they will be required to remain on duty after their shift ends and the overtime worked is less than 30 minutes, no allowance is payable.

3.4.4 Recall to Duty - Officers who are recalled to duty between two rostered shifts may be entitled to overtime. They will be entitled to have their travelling time treated as duty, up to any reasonable limit set by the Chief Constable of the relevant force. In Essex Police, it is 30 minutes travel time each way. In Kent Police, an officer can claim travelling time of up to 1 hour per recall.

3.4.4.1 Officers have to work a minimum of a completed period of 15 minutes when recalled to duty (to include relevant travelling time) before they are entitled to claim any overtime for the recall and will only be paid for completed periods of 15 minutes thereafter. Answering the telephone does not necessarily constitute a recall to duty.

3.4.4.2 If an officer, who is not on-call, receives a call that requires necessary action or duty to be performed, this may be a recall to duty, and the member may be eligible for appropriate compensation.

3.4.4.3 If an officer is recalled to duty, it is not subject to the loss of the 30-minute disregard.

3.4.5 Advancing the start of duty from the rostered time - When the start time of a rostered shift is brought forward without due notice (8 hours or more before the new commencement time) so that the duty straddles the start of the force day, and the shift is begun on a day on which the member has already completed a normal rostered shift, the time worked before the rostered commencement time is reckonable as overtime (at a rate of 0.33 on top of single time), and is also taken into account as part of that rostered shift.

3.4.5.1 Due notice for these purposes is defined in Regulation 25 of Police Regulations 2003 as “notice given at least 8 hours before the revised starting time of the rostered tour of duty in question”.

3.4.5.2 Officers should be given as much notice of the duty change as possible and every effort should be made to ensure that notice is given before the end of the shift prior to the one that is to be changed

3.5 On-Call Payments

3.5.1 Officers will be eligible to claim on-call payments on a monthly basis for each on-call session performed. Officers eligible to claim must ensure that their applications are submitted for payment via SAP promptly, but no later than 30th April each year to ensure that the payment is made in the correct financial year. Applications made after this date will only be paid in exceptional circumstances.

3.5.2 The list of departments/officers that are eligible for on-call payments will be held centrally and revised as required, unless otherwise stated below. Cover will be provided by a single officer, with the exception of Force Negotiators. Chief Officer approval is required to add any officers/ roles to this list. The list for Kent Police is shown in Appendix A and for Essex Police in Appendix B. The relevant resourcing departments will maintain a list of on-call posts.

3.5.3 This payment is intended to reimburse the individual for the inconvenience and restrictions that may affect their personal life, but does not recompense for hours worked since this is dealt with separately.

3.6 Overtime Payments

3.6.1 The overtime allowance, where payable, is time and one third, or equivalent time off in lieu of an allowance can be taken. It is the officer’s choice whether to claim for pay or time.

3.6.2 Part-time officers (Constables to Chief Inspectors) are paid at plain time for all determined and additional hours up to 40 hours in a relevant week unless they choose to take time off in lieu of an allowance.

3.6.3 Officers should refer to Police Regulations 2003, Regulation 25 - Overtime and the determination in Annex G, for a full description of a Police Officer’s entitlement to payment for overtime or time off in lieu of an allowance. Refer also to Regulation 26 and the determination in Annex H, for a full description of a Police Officer’s entitlement for Public Holidays and Rest Days.

3.7 On-Call Rotas

3.7.1 If officers on an on-call rota cannot fulfil their on-call commitments, due to sickness or other unforeseen personal circumstance, it is their responsibility to inform their line manager so that alternative cover can be arranged at the earliest possible opportunity. Officers must not wait until they are called before informing the organisation of their inability to undertake the on-call commitment. Officers will not be able to claim a payment in these circumstances.

3.7.2 Divisional/LPA Commanders/Heads of Departments will be responsible for seeking to minimise the requirement for officers to be on-call wherever possible. Individual officers will be responsible for maintaining accurate records of their on-call duties and for claiming for the payments at the appropriate times.

3.7.3 It should be noted that the Force would expect the norm for on-call rotas to be 1 in 4 or greater. This may not always apply in some areas of work, for example, where an officer is part of more than one rota. On-call rotas will be agreed locally and due consideration will be given to all ‘on-call’ rotas to maintain each force’s duty of care and achieve a work/life balance for all officers.

3.7.4 Telephone contact – Officers required to be on-call will normally be issued with a force owned/leased mobile telephone or have access to a pool mobile telephone for these purposes. Where this is not available they may be eligible to claim a telephone allowance as set out in the relevant Force policy/procedure/SOP. This will be a matter for local management agreement and determination but should adequately enable the officer to satisfy the requirement to be contactable by telephone set out at 3.3.2 above.

3.7.5 Officers who work in on-call roles have the responsibility of adding their ‘work contact details’ on the personal data screen on ESS/SAP and / or ensuring their details are kept up to date on any relevant on-call database.

3.7.6 The hours spent on-call that do not require physical attendance at work or responding to issues or taking necessary action over the telephone, do not normally need to be recorded on the duty recording system since they are not considered to count towards working time in accordance with the Working Time Regulations 1998. If an officer is recalled to duty as a result of receiving a telephone call, the officer may be eligible for payment. If claiming overtime, the actual hours worked should be recorded.

4.0 Equality Impact Assessment

4.1 This protocol has been assessed with regard to its relevance to race and diversity equality. As a result of this assessment the protocol has been graded as having a low potential impact.

5.0 Risk Assessment

5.1 Each Force will ensure monitoring is in place for adherence to Working Time Regulations and Police Regulations. There is a duty of care in terms of considering welfare for hours worked.

5.2 There are significant organisational risks relating to the reputation and financial position of both Essex Police and Kent Police that would arise from a failure to effectively follow this protocol correctly.

6.0 Consultation

6.1 The following have been consulted during the formulation of this document:
• Federation
• RMU / FRU
• Essex Diversity and Inclusion Manager
• Health & Safety
• Strategic Change Team
• PSD Superintendent
• Policy/Risk
• Superintendents Association
• Strategic Force Crime & Incident Registrar
• Corporate Finance
• HR

7.0 Monitoring and Review

7.1 This protocol will be reviewed by, or on behalf of, the Director of HR every two years to ensure it remains accurate, compliant with legislation and remains fit for purpose.

8.0 Governing force policy

Related force policies or related procedures (Essex) / linked standard operating procedures (Kent)
8.1 This HR protocol supports the overarching HR policy L1.
• L01680 Protocol - Overtime and On-Call – Police Staff
• L11320 Protocol – Working Time Regulations
• L01540 Protocol - Leave

8.2 Data Security

8.2.1 Essex Police and Kent Police have measures in place to protect the security of your data in accordance with our Information Management Policy – W 1000 Policy – Information Management.

8.3 Retention & Disposal of Records

8.3.1 Essex Police and Kent Police will hold data in accordance with our Records Review, Retention & Disposal Policy – W 1012 Procedure/SOP - Records Review, Retention and Disposal.
8.3.2 We will only hold data for as long as necessary for the purposes for which we collected.