About us

From Alex Duncan, former National Secretary of the Police Federation England and Wales, 1st October 2018 to 30th June 2022

My Former Role

The Police Federation of England and Wales is the representative body for Police Officers up to and including the rank of Chief Inspector.  I was the National Secretary of the Police Federation of England and Wales between the 1st October 2018 and 30th June 2022 when I retired from the Police Service.  As the National Secretary I was amongst other matters responsible for negotiation and consultation in respect of Police Officers’ terms and conditions.  This includes leading on pension matters and as such involved me being a member of the Police pension scheme advisory board.

The scheme advisory board is a statutory requirement and is charged with advising the Policing Minister on matters relating to Police pensions.  Prior to my time in the role the Government had introduced a new pension scheme.  This came into effect on 1st April 2015 and unlike previous new scheme introductions was not solely applied to those joining from that date onwards.  The Government of the time had however protected those Officers serving at the time of the scheme being introduced but colleagues who were younger in age and service were required to move into the newer less generous scheme.

I was keen to provide members the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the intended remedy and the choices it was going to give them.

My knowledge and experience of PMM

I have known of the work Police Money Matters has done in assisting Police Officers with their financial affairs for many years having first encountered them in my then role as the Avon and Somerset Branch Deputy Secretary, a post I took up in 2003.  PMM were extremely popular with both serving and retired members in respect of the advice and service they provided.  I became the Avon and Somerset Branch Secretary in 2007 and held that role until becoming a member of the National Board in 2014.  I would have expected to have been made aware of any complaint regarding PMM involving an A&S member but do not believe there were any which is an outstanding record.

I knew that PMM provided their service to the vast majority of Police Federation Branches and as you would expect I regularly attended meetings with and spoke to my counterparts from other Branches.  At no time have I ever heard of negative experiences with PMM.

I understood PMM worked with St James’s Place and between them they were providing the service our members required and appreciated.  The retirement seminars hosted by PMM in many Force areas (including Avon and Somerset) were extremely popular and well attended.

Recognising the thirst for information from members in respect of the pension remedy and the fact I could see no evidence of that information being forthcoming from either Government or the employer I spoke to PMM about the possibility of them joining with me in providing virtual pension evenings during which members could be walked through the remedy design to date and could ask questions on the matter.  We were clear that the purpose was not provide bespoke advice based on individual circumstances but those who required that would be able to book a one-to-one appointment to do so.

I was delighted that PMM were happy to be involved in delivering the evenings with us and as such we commenced our series of roadshows which quickly proved to be extremely popular leading to requests for us to provide additional sessions for many of the Branches we catered for.  The format of the event was a presentation by a member of PMM on the remedy journey to date and the framework that had been decided upon.  They covered the known and unknown delivered in a manner that those attending could understand and clarified any areas they were asked about.  I dealt with areas being currently consulted on and the Police Federation’s position on issues.

We explained at the start of each session that the presentation from PMM was their property and as such could not be recorded, captured for use elsewhere or passed to others.  I was made aware at several of the sessions that there were guests in attendance who had an interest in seeing how the events were run and the information covered.  Several of the guests were linked to PMM and the intention behind them attending was to develop their knowledge so they could provide resilience in respect of those available to deliver future presentations on behalf of PMM or indeed to be aware of what had been addressed in follow up one to one appointment.

We were careful to protect the presentation provided by PMM which I understood to be their property from being obtained by others for their own use.  The only introducers or IFAs Financial Advisers permitted to attend were those put forward by or agreed with PMM.

By Way of Background

The introduction of transitional arrangements as part of the Government’s pension reform was subject to legal challenge on the basis that the arrangements were discriminatory.  The Government were found to have acted unlawfully in respect of the transitional arrangements and acknowledged that they were required to remedy the situation.

Having conceded the Government began work on designing how to implement a remedy for all impacted parts of the public sector.  I was aware that there were many members who were going to be impacted by the requirement on the Government to remedy the unlawful discrimination and who wanted clarity on how that was going to be done, timescales for the work to be undertaken and what it meant for them and the choices available to them.