Police Pay Rise 2026/27: The 3.5% Award Explained
The police pay rise for 2026/27 is 3.5%, confirmed by the Government on 15 July 2026 and effective from 1 September 2026 for all ranks in England and Wales. Here is exactly what it means for your salary, your take-home and when it reaches your account.
What is the police pay rise for 2026/27?
The 2026/27 police pay award is 3.5%, applied to all federated, superintending and chief officer ranks in England and Wales. It took effect on 1 September 2026.
The Home Secretary confirmed the award in a written ministerial statement to Parliament on 15 July 2026. It followed the recommendation of the independent Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB), which had recommended a higher figure of 3.9%. The Government accepted a 3.5% consolidated rise, describing it as the most it could fund within existing police and Home Office budgets.
At the time of writing, the official statutory determination that sets the exact new pay points has not yet been published. Until it is, the figures below apply the confirmed 3.5% to the official September 2025 scales and are accurate to within a pound or two. You can see every current figure on our 2026/27 police pay scales page.
How much does the 3.5% add to each rank?
The table below shows the top of each main rank scale before and after the award. These are basic pay figures for England and Wales, before London Weighting or regional allowances.
| Rank | Top of scale 2025/26 | After 3.5% | Yearly gain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Constable | £50,256 | £52,015 | £1,759 |
| Sergeant | £56,208 | £58,175 | £1,967 |
| Inspector | £68,982 | £71,396 | £2,414 |
| Chief Inspector | £73,149 | £75,709 | £2,560 |
| Superintendent | £99,015 | £102,481 | £3,466 |
A new constable starting salary rises from £31,164 to about £32,255. To see the figure for your own rank and pay point, use the police pay rise calculator, or browse the full constable pay scale.
What about London Weighting and allowances?
Basic pay is only part of the package for many officers. Those in the Metropolitan and City of London forces receive London Weighting, and some South East forces pay a regional allowance on top of the national scale.
London Weighting is pensionable, so it is added to your basic pay before your pension is worked out. The separate London allowance and the South East allowances are not pensionable. All of these were uplifted alongside the 2026/27 award, so officers in those areas see the rise on both their basic pay and their allowances.
Our calculators let you add your location so the figures reflect the allowances that apply to you. Choose Metropolitan or South East in the take-home pay calculator to include them.
Why your take-home rises by less than 3.5%
The headline percentage is never what reaches your bank account. A 3.5% gross rise usually lands as roughly 2% more take-home, because three deductions apply to the increase.
First, your PPS 2015 pension is charged on the higher salary, and a rise can push you into a higher contribution tier of 12.88%, 13.88% or 14.22% on your whole pensionable pay. Then income tax and National Insurance apply to what is left.
Because the higher-rate threshold is frozen at £50,270, a growing share of senior pay is taxed at 40%. A top-scale constable now pays 40% tax on part of the rise. The full method, with every rate, is set out on our How It Works page, and you can see your own net figure with the take-home pay calculator. For the official bands, see gov.uk income tax rates.
A worked example for a constable
Take a top-scale constable moving from £50,256 to £52,015, a gross rise of £1,759 a year. On paper that is 3.5%. In practice, pension is taken first at 13.88% of the increase, then income tax at 40% on the part above £50,270, and National Insurance at 2% on that same part.
After those deductions, the £1,759 gross rise is worth roughly £700 to £750 a year in extra take-home, or about £60 a month. That is why the increase feels smaller in your account than the headline suggests. The exact figure depends on your pension tier and tax code, both of which the take-home calculator accounts for. An officer lower down the scale, still inside the 20% band, keeps a larger share of their rise.
When will you see the pay rise?
The award takes effect on 1 September 2026. Forces that can process it in time pay the new rate from the September payroll.
Where a force cannot update its payroll in time, it applies the new rate in a later month and backdates the difference to 1 September. In that case you are owed arrears as a one-off lump sum. Our guide to police back pay in 2026 explains how that works, and the back pay calculator works out the amount.
Is the 2026/27 pay rise pensionable?
Yes. The award is a consolidated rise, so it becomes part of your basic pay and counts towards your pension. Your contributions are taken on the higher salary, and the extra pay builds extra pension in the career average scheme.
How does 3.5% compare to recent awards?
The 2026/27 award of 3.5% is lower than the 4.2% awarded for 2025/26. With inflation easing, the smaller rise still represents a real-terms change close to flat for many officers once deductions are counted.
The Police Federation of England and Wales argued for a larger, fully funded award and continues to press on long-term pay restoration. The gap between the PRRB's 3.9% recommendation and the 3.5% awarded reflects the funding pressure the Government cited.
Will there be another pay rise after 2026/27?
Police pay is reviewed every year. The PRRB gathers evidence over the winter and makes a recommendation in the summer, and the Government then sets the award, normally effective from 1 September. The 2027/28 process will run on the same cycle.
After several years of awards that struggled to keep pace with inflation, the Police Federation continues to campaign for longer-term pay restoration. We update this site as each year's figures are confirmed, so bookmark the pay scales page or the pay rise calculator to check the latest position.