Holly Lynch: The government must provide a fair deal for Ministry of Defence Police

Earlier this year, I had the chance to visit HMNB Portsmouth where Ministry of Defence Police (MDP) are tasked with protecting our brand new HMS Queen Elizabeth II aircraft carrier. Not an easy role when you consider that she’s the size of three football pitches.

The MDP is the dedicated civilian police force of the MoD, and whilst I felt I had a good understanding of policing, having worked hard to secure the ‘Protect The Protectors’ bill that only recently became law, I was surprised to learn about both the unique challenges facing the MDP, and the double standards that undermine its officers.

The MDP are tasked with providing security for MoD establishments, assets and infrastructure through predominantly armed, but also unarmed guarding, and highly specialised security for the Trident nuclear deterrent. In the event that the threat level is raised to critical and Operation Temperer is initiated, officers can be deployed to work with regional forces all over the country at a moment’s notice. That makes them an instrumental part of the UK’s counter-terror capabilities.

Despite the critical nature of the MDP’s work, the employment terms and conditions of its officers lag behind those of colleagues from regional forces in a number of ways. The government must address these inconsistencies as soon as possible if the MDP is to effectively continue its vital work across the UK.

The Public Service Pensions Act 2013, introduced by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, gives uniformed police and the armed forces a retirement age of 60 years. However, the MDP were not included in this legislation, meaning that MDP officers remained subject to the state pension age. In 2015, after effective campaigning from the Defence Police Federation and its members, the MoD promised to reduce the MDP pension age to 65 but the force are still waiting for this to be applied. Earlier this year the government announced that Treasury and Cabinet Office Ministers “have not been minded to make such a change” without laying out the clear reasons for such a position. MDP officers have offered to make greater pension contributions to meet the shortfall with no additional cost to the MoD but this offer has been rejected.

Asking MDP officers to continue working until the age of 67 or 68 or even 65 is not realistic or achievable in view of the considerable weight of equipment that must be carried by MDP officers and subsequent stress on joints and the significant firearms responsibilities that MDP officers have. MDP officers must comply with Home Office fitness standards rather than those designed specifically for MDP officers by the Institute of Naval Medicine. These new standards require MDP officers to meet the firearms fitness requirements of Home Office constabularies without acknowledging the major differences in roles and responsibilities.

The government’s expectation that armed officers, at the forefront of counter-terrorism, will not see their performances deteriorate as they approach 70 is quite frankly negligent.

MDP officers only get paid 95 percent of the salaries of other constabularies, including the Home Office Police and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary. This inconsistency has its roots in the Wright Report of 1979, which decided that police forces performed different roles and so should be paid different amounts to reflect their responsibilities. Much time has passed since that report with considerable changes to British policing. Today, MDP officers are required to undertake the same training as their Home Office colleagues and have the same level of skills, education and fitness.

It is crucial that MDP officers are firmly incentivised to continue to carry out their work and that they are treated fairly by the government on pensions and pay. The government must act quickly to ensure the force has a pension age of 60, mirroring those covered in the Public Service Pensions Act 2013, and are given the same pay as their Home Office peers. This will boost morale in the force, deliver consistency and fairness across the UK police and ensure that the MDP is able to recruit, train and develop motivated and world-class officers into the future – keeping us all that bit safer.

Holly Lynch is MP for Halifax.