HOME OFFICE / ACPO OBJECTIVE JUSTIFICATION FOR THE NEW COMPULSORY RETIREMENT AGES (CRA)

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1 HOME OFFICE / ACPO OBJECTIVE JUSTIFICATION FOR THE NEW COMPULSORY RETIREMENT AGES (CRA) 1. PURPOSE 1.1 This paper sets out the joint Home Office / ACPO objective justification which outlines the reasons for the recent review of compulsory retirement ages (CRAs) for police officers and justifies the new CRAs which came into effect on 1 October INTRODUCTION 2.1 The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 (the Regulations) came into force on 1 October These Regulations govern direct and indirect discrimination on the grounds of age. 2.2 The Regulations contain provision making it unlawful for an employer, in relation to a person whom he employs at an establishment in Great Britain, to discriminate against that person by dismissing him. For this purpose, the holding of the office of constable is treated as employment (a) by the chief officer of police as respects any act done by him in relation to a constable or that office (b) by the police authority as respects any act done by it in relation to a constable or that office. 2.3 The Regulations establish a default retirement age of 65 for employees, but this provision does not apply to police officers and other office holders. Any compulsory retirement age for police officers therefore requires objective justification i.e. it must be demonstrated to be a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. Otherwise it may be a form of direct discrimination on the grounds of age. 2.4 The primary aim of the police service, as identified in Building Communities, Beating Crime, is to prevent, reduce and detect crime to provide safety and security for law-abiding citizens and their families. To achieve this primary aim, the service has various legitimate aims against which any CRA should be objectively justified. These include: Operational resilience a chief officer must be able to deploy sufficient resources to deal with day to day and unplanned emergency situations, frequently over sustained periods. Public safety and assurance- a chief officer must be responsive to public safety considerations and must engage with the public to ensure public confidence is enhanced. Health, welfare and safety- a chief officer must take responsibility in ensuring all staff are not exposed to unnecessary risk and where necessary provided with appropriate support when essential for welfare reasons. Facilitation of workforce planning and modernisation a chief officer is responsible for having a mechanism for succession planning to enable the service to continue to grow and respond to changing demands. Encouraging diversity in the service through recruitment and retention- a chief officer must ensure their recruitment procedures are non-discriminatory and actively 1

2 encourage applicants from diverse communities to join the service to enable responsive policing to be delivered. A chief officer should also support the career development of all officers through the ranks of the police force. 3. BACKGROUND 3.1 The pre-october CRAs had been in place for over fifty years against a background of undoubted improvement in health, fitness levels and life expectancy during that period. Whilst acknowledging such developments, consideration has also been given to changing role of a police officer over this period. Despite an increased emphasis on community based policing, there is now a continuing need to respond to constantly changing crime patterns, including the increase in some areas of reported violent crime, organised crime, increased community tension and terrorism. Contemporary police work is increasingly confrontational and police officers require a special set of competencies and abilities to perform their role. The new CRAs were considered in the context of all of the above changes. 3.2 The Police Pensions Regulations provide that a police officer may be required to retire on the date on which the police authority determine that he or she ought to retire on the grounds of being permanently disabled. Disablement is defined as inability, occasioned by infirmity of mind or body, to perform the ordinary duties of a member of the force. The Court of Appeal in 2000 in the case of Stewart held that the holder of the office of constable may properly be required to discharge any of the essential functions of that office, including therefore operational duty. 3.3 The National Competency Framework for the police service sets out a comprehensive range of activities which police officers should be able to perform in their various ranks and roles. Following the Court of Appeal judgment and its reference to essential functions of the office of constable, the key common aspects of these activities have been consolidated into a set of core duties which are used to assess ability to be a police officer for the purpose of recruiting against national recruitment standards, as well as assessing continuing fitness to serve in cases of possible Ill Health Retirement. The ordinary duties of a member of the force have been defined by the Police Negotiating Board in their joint Official Side-Staff Side guidance to forces as: Managing processes and resources and using IT; Patrol/supervising public order; Incident management, such as traffic and traffic accident management; Dealing with crime, such as scene of crime work, interviewing, searching and investigating offences; Arrest and restraint; and Dealing with procedures, such as prosecution procedures, managing case papers and giving evidence in court. 3.4 The CRAs for all ranks were considered in the light of this definition of ordinary duties and the primary purpose of policing in order to ensure that all forces have sufficient operational resilience to deal with the above demands as well as the ability to respond to unplanned 2

3 operational emergencies that arise with increasing frequency, especially in metropolitan areas. The ability to achieve this will determine public safety and has a positive impact on public assurance. 3.5 The generality of work in the Federated Ranks is both operational and confrontational and therefore involves greater physical exertion. This physical exertion is exacerbated by other factors such as changing shift patterns, being on-call and frequent and often unplanned overtime. The generality of work in the Superintending and ACPO Ranks is less directly operational and confrontational. Typically these officers have more structured hours (although they too can be on-call) and therefore involve less physical exertion. This dichotomy is reflected in the new CRAs although the need to allow for exceptions to the above generalities was also given appropriate consideration. 4. MEDICAL CONSIDERATIONS 4.1 When ACPO was asked for its view on future police retirement ages it included force medical advisers (FMAs) in its consultation. The response from FMAs indicated that there is well documented evidence that certain types of medical condition are directly linked to age, including arthritis, cardiac and circulatory conditions and diabetes. The increased risk of injury is also of concern particularly as the unpredictable nature of policing may well exacerbate these risks. These cover issues such as orthopaedic conditions, where earlier injuries become troublesome in later life and reduce the ability to respond operationally to emergencies. This is particularly of concern where short bursts of exertion follow periods of inactivity. Increased psychological stress can advance both cardiac and diagnosed mental health conditions and are cited as further evidence of increased risks to older officers. 4.2 FMAs also pointed out that there is some evidence that older officers have higher levels of absence related to sickness and injury. Whilst this cannot be assumed to be directly related to age, it is considered to be linked to the toll taken on older officers in terms of increased physical and psychological stress. In recognition of this, some forces have introduced informal arrangements to support older officers in view of their need for protection against situations where they could be at greater risk and also to ensure sufficient operational resilience is in place (for example in some forces officers over 45 may be excused from night duty or shifts where confrontational policing is more likely). FMAs also referred to the effect of a potentially aging workforce on the health and welfare of younger officers who may be increasingly required to cover some of the more confrontational roles. The above evidence has been considered in the context of workforce modernisation since ongoing plans to make the role of Constables concentrated on confrontational duties may put them at greater physical risk. Consideration of the effect of the above medical factors on a force s operational resilience is crucial to ensuring public protection and assurance. Although the relationship between physical fitness and age is of more relevance to the Federated Ranks, the impact of psychological stress on all officers must not be understated. 5. WORKFORCE MODERNISATION 5.1 As stated above, the new CRAs take into account the predicted impact of the workforce modernisation agenda on all officers particularly with regard to their skills and the roles they have to perform. A key aim of workforce modernisation is to improve diversity with a view to establishing a more representative police service which is able to engage effectively with all communities. A higher CRA for all Ranks encourages the recruitment, development and 3

4 retention of late joiners and those that have taken a career break (among others) and therefore encourage greater diversity in the service. 5.2 However, against this the fact that the workforce modernisation agenda is also changing the role of the police officer, particularly in comparison with police staff has also been given consideration: Federated Ranks: The nature and role of a Police Constable is expected to become increasingly confrontational ( Building Communities, Beating Crime ) as a consequence of the continued development of PCSO capacity and proposals for police staff to improve support to front line officers. Although the roles of the other Federated Ranks (of Sergeant, Inspector and Chief Inspector) may become more clearly focused on performance, direction and managerial activities, officers will still work shift patterns and will be required to engage in operational and confrontational duties. There is a need to ensure satisfactory operational ability of the generality of officers in these ranks is evident. Superintending and ACPO Ranks: Police officers are part of an organisation which requires effective workforce planning if it is to operate effectively and develop the managers of the future as well as retaining highly skilled and experienced officers. This indicates the need for a CRA consistent with other management posts i.e. the default retirement age of 65. A CRA of lower than 65 for Superintending and ACPO Ranks may deprive the service of valuable experience. Although a CRA of higher than 65 for these officers would encourage the retention of highly skilled and experienced officers, it would similarly restrict development and promotion opportunities for others. The new CRA of 65 for Superintending and ACPO Ranks therefore optimises the balance between the above workforce planning requirements. 6. NEW CRAs 6.1 The Home Office, after consulting with the PNB, believes there is a need for two levels of compulsory retirement ages, linked to rank, which enables the complex and dynamic business of policing to be delivered, now and in the future. 6.2 The new CRAs for officers are as follows: RANK ALL FORCES Constable Chief Inspector 60 Superintending and ACPO ranks 65 The two-tier system is directly related to the various legitimate aims of the police force set out in paragraph 2 above and reflects the operational requirements of the generality of officers in those ranks. 6.3 Although some organisations represented by the PNB did argue for lower CRAs for some ranks, for instance 55 for Constables, all agreed that the new CRAs should be no higher than those listed above. The Association of Police Authorities, ACPO, Home Office and all the police Staff Associations all agreed that the CRA for Federated Ranks should not be higher than 60. 4

5 6.4 The new CRA of 60 for all Federated Ranks is largely based on recognition of the increased and sustained operational and confrontational duty in these ranks. This is proportionate and achieves the following legitimate aims of the police service: Providing operational resilience; Ensuring health, welfare and safety; Ensuring public safety and assurance; and Encouraging diversity in the service through recruitment and retention 6.5 The new CRA of 65 for Superintending and ACPO Ranks is proportionate to the following legitimate aims: Facilitating workforce planning and modernisation; and Encouraging diversity in the service through recruitment and retention Comparison with other occupations 6.6 In revising the CRAs, we have given due consideration to the CRAs of other sectors of the police service. The following deserves particular consideration: PCSOs : These are police staff and therefore have a CRA of 65. Although operational, PCSOs do not carry out the more complex and high-risk tasks that police officers perform and are specifically not required to perform confrontational policing work. If they find themselves in such a situation they are instructed to withdraw. The difference between the CRAs of the Federated Ranks and PCSOs can therefore be justified. Flexibility for extensions beyond CRA 6.7 While the above CRAs are justified in the generality of cases, we recognise that there will be exceptions and have therefore also introduced flexibility so that forces may retain officers beyond their CRA. Extensions can be granted at the discretion of the Chief Officer (or Police Authority in the case of ACPO ranks) subject to operational requirements. There is no specified cut-off for such extensions each being considered on its own merits. In order to ensure these decision are taken as consistently and fairly as possible the PNB and Home Office have issued joint guidance to forces in cases where extensions of service are being considered (please see Home Office Circular 35/2006). Extensions of service will also have to comply with the Regulations. Retention of existing pension ages 6.8 While having introduced new CRAs we have retained pre-existing pension ages. This means that the age at which an officer can retire with an immediate pension has not been affected. This will assure managers that only those who want to stay on are likely to take advantage of the higher CRAs. It will also ensure that we continue to honour the previous expectations of police officers with regard to their retirement date and the payment of pension benefits. 5

6 7. CONCLUSION 7.1 The new CRAs give due consideration to advances in health and life expectancy while recognising the changing nature of policing for all officers as a result of societal changes and the workforce modernisation agenda. The new CRAs meet the following legitimate aims: Providing operational resilience; Ensuring health, welfare and safety; Ensuring public safety and assurance; Facilitation of workforce planning and modernisation; and Encouraging diversity in the service through recruitment and retention 7.2 The systems of CRAs outlined above for police officers are proportionate to the above aims and are therefore objectively justified under the Regulations. 6