1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025

The combined mean and median figures outlined below encompass both officers and staff, who are distinct groups. The officers and staff pay, grading/rank structures, and gender compositions vary. Police officers follow national pay scales, where pay levels is generally higher than the average salaries for staff. The force have a higher proportion of staff who are female than for officers. In addition, for both police officers and staff pay rates rise incrementally. As a general rule individuals within a specific rank or grade with a longer length of service will be paid at a higher rate.

Mean pay gap:

• the combined mean pay gap for officers and staff in 2024/25, was 12.15% in favour of males compared to 12.40% in 2023/24. This is a decrease of 0.25 percentage points.
• for officers only, the mean pay gap was 5.19% in favour of males (compared with 5.38% in 2023/24).
• for staff only, it was 9.31% in favour of males (compared with 10.18% in 2023/24).

Median pay gap:

• the combined median pay gap for officers and staff in 2024/25, was 25.02% in favour of males compared to 24.63% in 2023/24. This is an increase of 0.39 percentage points.
• for officers only, the median pay gap was 5.75% in favour of males (compared with 9.00% in 2023/24).
• for staff only, it was 6.53% in favour of males (compared with 8.20% in 2023/24).

Whilst there has been an increase in the median pay gap, for officers, this is primarily because there is a higher overall average length of service for males compared to females across the majority of the ranks, meaning a lower number of females have remained in force to progress to higher scale points compared to males. For example, as at 31 March 2025, a total of 38.51% of females were at the highest police constable scale point compared to 46% males. As a result, this means that we have a higher number of male officers on higher scale points compared to females. This rank represents the largest proportion of our officers and thus has a greater proportionate impact on the pay gap. The recent success in female recruitment will lead to a higher proportion of female officers at the lower pay scales within this group.

With regards to staff, the gap exists primarily due to the fact that we have a much higher proportion of females in lower graded roles (68.90% in grades A to D) compared to males (51.71%). Higher numbers of our staff work in roles within these grades, thus higher impact on the pay gap.