Police unfairly treated over promotions

A group of Greater Manchester policemen, furious after being left in the ranks by a promotion freeze, have convinced a High Court judge they were unfairly treated.

The group of constables and sergeants put huge personal, emotional and financial effort into passing tests that should have pushed them up the promotional ladder.

And, following their success, they were informed that they would be promoted to the next rank up, subject to a professional standards check and a vacancy opening. However, that was before the public-sector cuts really began to bite and, in April and May last year, they were hit with the news that promotions were being frozen and that, even when the system was restarted, they would have to take the tests all over again.

Assistant Chief Constable Dawn Copley told the court that GMP was faced with making £134 million in cuts between 2011 and 2015 — about 20 per cent of the force’s entire budget — and that 1,200 police officers, and more than 1,500 other staff, were expected to lose their jobs. The disappointed officers mounted a judicial-review challenge to the dashing of their promotion hopes and triumphed when Mr Justice Supperstone ruled that the force had broken an unequivocal and unambiguous promise made to them after they passed the tests.

The judge ruled that the officers had a legitimate expectation that they would be put into a pool of those awaiting promotion and were given an unequivocal assurance by means of an express promise that they would be consulted before that position was significantly changed.

GMP accepted that none of the officers had been consulted individually and the judge found that it had acted in violation of the requirement of procedural fairness.

Ordering the GMP to urgently reconsider the officers’ cases, the judge quashed the decision that the success they achieved in the tests would no longer stand for immediate promotion.