Record number of police forced to rely on food banks

Worried officers have proposed setting up food banks for police recruits, The Independent can reveal, as one in 10 admit to relying on handouts. Figures show that record numbers of police are struggling with food poverty and turned to food banks last year as wages stagnated.

- AMY-CLARE MARTIN

One in five police officers is missing meals to get by and almost 10 per cent have used a food bank in the last 12 months, according to a survey of more than 6,000 serving officers. This is up almost 50 per cent in three years and as officers warn morale is at an all-time low and forces are haemorrhaging staff, with one in five planning on quitting in the next two years.

The figures come after senior British Transport Police (BTP) officers proposed setting up a food bank to support skint recruits at Spring House training college in Islington, north London. However, the project was not pursued, The Independent understands.

The average police constable in England and Wales joins on just £23,556, according to the Police Federation, although there is an additional weighting for London-based forces and BTP pay scales are different.

The starting salary is more than £4,000 less than a constable who joined the police before 2013, when the then home secretary Theresa May slashed officer salaries in a raft of controversial austerity measures. Comparatively, newly qualified band-5 nurses take home £28,407 – rising to £34,089 in the capital with the high cost area supplement.