MPS Annual Leave Policy 2011 to 2022
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.023022
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I would like sight of the MPS Annual Leave Policy please.
To clarify, my request relates to Police Staff.
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Please find below information pursuant to your request above.
Annual leave entitlement
For police staff, annual leave entitlement depends on your length of service as follows:
• less than five years’ service – 28 days
• more than five years’ service – 33 days
Annual leave can be taken in half days (half the appropriate shift or working day) and should be taken throughout the course of the leave year which runs from 1st April to 31st March.
In exceptional circumstances and by mutual consent less than the equivalent of half a day annual leave may be taken.
Before going on annual leave you must request the time off through your line manager, next appropriate line manager, or approved local leave management process and have your request approved. Taking annual leave without seeking or obtaining permission may be considered a disciplinary offence.
Annual leave is calculated using net hours. Net hours, is the total number of hours worked, not including the 1 hour lunch break. This approach is used to calculate the annual leave entitlement for all types of working patterns. When updating leave records after leave has been taken, net working hours must be used.
Where the annual leave balance is less than equivalent to half a day you are permitted to arrange to take the residual time as annual leave with your line manager.
Further information appears in other sections on this page and there is also some helpful examples that can be found in the Annual Leave and Public Holidays: Helpful Resources page.
20 years’ service additional annual leave
Police staff who achieve 20 years of service on or after 1 January 2014 only will receive one additional day of annual leave which will be applied to the leave year in which this service anniversary is achieved. It should not be added to leave cards until the 20th anniversary is reached. This additional day is granted in the 20th year only, after which annual leave entitlement reverts to the standard entitlement.
If you work flexible shift lengths or compressed hours your additional day of leave must be added to your leave card in hours, refer to the Shift workers section for details.
If you are part time your additional day of leave must be calculated pro rata using the 7.2 hour factor, for example: 7.2 hours / 36 = 0.20 x 16 hours worked per week = 3.2 (or 3hrs: 12 minutes).
Career breaks do not count towards accruing 20 years of service.
Advice regarding the accrual of annual leave during paid and unpaid sickness can be found within the Annual leave carryover - Long-term Sickness Absence section. For advice about whether annual leave can be accrued during other absences please refer to the relevant subject of the KM site (for example Career Breaks).
Further annual leave and public holidays information
You can access the Annual Leave and Public Holidays menu page to find further related content in the How To, Managers Guide and Helpful Resources pages.
Sickness during annual leave
If you are sick during annual leave, your annual leave can be cancelled as long as you provide medical evidence. You may claim reimbursement for any medical evidence provided. To claim reimbursement you may claim this as a non-taxable expense in PSOP.
If COVID-19 restrictions delay your ability to get a timely fit note you should submit any other evidence for example track and trace notification or test result.
For further COVID-19 information see the Coronavirus People advice on the intranet.
Further annual leave and public holidays information
You can access the Annual Leave and Public Holidays menu page to find further related content in the How To, Managers Guide and Helpful Resources pages.
Part-time
For part-time staff, entitlement to annual leave is awarded on a pro-rata based on the average hours worked per week. Leave will normally be expressed in net hours, unless you work five days of equal length per week in which case you may have your leave expressed in days. A day’s annual leave is defined as pro rata of 7.2 hours. An annual leave calculator is available from the Helpful Resources page to help calculate part time annual leave.
Further annual leave and public holidays information
You can access the Annual Leave and Public Holidays menu page to find further related content in the How To, Managers Guide and Helpful Resources pages.
Full-time
For those working full time compressed patterns, the leave entitlement must be converted into net hours and used according to the number of hours you are expected to work on a given day. You can use the annual leave calculator within the Helpful Resources page to assist you.
Further annual leave and public holidays information
You can access the Annual Leave and Public Holidays menu page to find further related content in the How To, Managers Guide and Helpful Resources pages.
Shift workers
For shift workers annual leave should be converted into net hours, irrespective of the length of the shifts i.e. 8, 9, 10 or 12 hours. When converting leave into hours, the number of leave days is multiplied by 7.2 hours (this is the decimal equivalent of 7 hours 12 minutes). E.g. a member of staff on maximum annual leave is 33 x 7.2 = 237.6 net hours per annum.
When you take a day’s leave from your annual leave record the net hours you would have worked for that shift (excluding the 1 hour “lunch” break) should be removed.
Further annual leave and public holidays information
You can access the Annual Leave and Public Holidays menu page to find further related content in the How To, Managers Guide and Helpful Resources pages.
Public holidays
Public holidays include bank holidays. Police staff (irrespective of working pattern) should expect to take public holidays at or around the time of the year in which they fall in the calendar.
For part time staff, those who work shifts/variable hours each day or those who work in other working patterns such as compressed hours the following applies:
• a year’s total public holiday entitlement is calculated in hours and given to you separately from your annual leave entitlement. For part time staff a pro-rated amount based on the net hours worked on average per week is given to you.
• when a public holiday falls on what would normally be a working day, the net hours you would have worked that day are deducted from your public holidays leave balance
• when a public holiday falls on a non-working day or rest day, no hours are deducted from your public holidays leave balance
• If your allowance is not sufficient to cover all or part of a public holiday, you must make up the additional hours
• If you have an excess from your public holidays leave balance, it must be agreed with your manager when any excess holidays will be taken and not be left until the end of the leave year. Public holidays cannot be carried over therefore you must ensure that you have planned to take any excess leave well in advance of the end of the annual leave year
• You should still expect to take public holiday at or near to the date that they fall in the calendar, however, we recognise that this may not suit everyone’s individual circumstances or the business needs of the organisation. In these circumstances you can agree individual arrangements with your line manager to take leave at a later point in advance of the end of the annual leave year
When a public holiday is worked premium pay can be claimed for the hours worked if you are in an eligible group. Further details can be found on the Allowances page
The annual leave calculators found within the Helpful Resources page can be used to calculate public holidays entitlements.
Further annual leave and public holidays information
You can access the Annual Leave and Public Holidays menu page to find further related content in the How To, Managers Guide and Helpful Resources pages.
Annual leave carryover
Using your annual leave entitlement over the course of the year is important for a number of reasons.
• it helps maintain your health and wellbeing, and it ensures the Met fulfils our legal obligations under the Working Time Regulations (WTR) to make sure our people have had adequate rest
• it also helps us to understand and manage our workforce capacity over the course of the year
• you should therefore look to use your leave entitlement and not store up leave which can’t then be used in the annual leave year
When it’s not possible to use up annual leave, perhaps due to operational demands, a limited amount leave can be carried over automatically to the following leave year.
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic the maximum carry-over of leave was temporarily changed to enable you to carry over more leave. The last leave year where this will be possible, under Government rules, is on 31st march 2022. After this, any carry-over of leave will revert to the pre-Covid arrangements.
Where you cannot take leave as a direct effect of the pandemic you should talk to your line manager about trying to rearrange your leave so you still get a break. If that is not possible, where it is agreed, you can carry leave into the next financial year. It is important to keep a record of why you have been unable to take leave to share with your line manager.
You should ensure that your requests for annual leave are made in a timely way to ensure that you do not lose any leave as these arrangements come to an end. On 1st April 2023 the amount of leave that can be carried over will return to normal.
Under normal circumstances (e.g. when the coronavirus does not impact on annual leave carryover) and in exceptional circumstances you can apply to your BOCU commander or head of unit to carry over more than the maximum carryover. A member of the SLT may be nominated to approve requests. They must be a minimum of superintendent or equivalent rank (substantive or temporarily promoted).
All decisions are based on business need and it is not guaranteed that a request to carryover leave will be approved, so you should look to use it up wherever possible.
Full time worker annual leave carryover
The maximum amount of leave that can be carried over to the following leave year is 9 days. This equates to 64 hours, 48 minutes for those on a full-time compressed shift (7.2 hours x 9 days (net)).
Operational police staff whose annual leave is calculated in gross hours would be entitled to:
• 40 Hour Gross – This equates to 72 hours for those on a full-time variable shift pattern (8 hours x 9 days)
• 41 Hours Gross – This equates to 73 hours, 48 minutes for those on a full-time variable shift pattern (8.2 hours x 9 days).
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic the maximum carry-over of leave was temporarily changed to enable you to carry over 15 days (see above process for calculating carryover in hours) into several leave years, however, you must have taken a minimum of 20 days annual leave in a year. The 20 days must not include Public Holidays.
In exceptional circumstances where it has not been practicable to take your leave because of the effects of coronavirus, you can carry over an additional 5 days, up to a maximum of 20 days leave. We do not believe that many people will find themselves in this situation, as we continue to encourage you to take your annual leave when you can.
20 days carry over would be in exceptional circumstances, for example if the Met were to cancel leave because of the operational impact of coronavirus on our resource levels. It would not apply if you chose to cancel your annual leave because of the restrictions on international travel.
Before any decision on carryover is made, line managers and Duties Office will make sure you have taken a minimum of 20 days leave to satisfy our legal obligations under Working Time Regulations.
On 1st April 2023 the amount of leave that can be carried over will return to normal.
Part time worker annual leave carryover
For part-time staff, the maximum carryover of leave is calculated by dividing the total part time annual leave entitlement by a factor of 3.67*. For example:
145.6 hours (annual leave allowance for part timer working 26 hours per week) ÷ 3.67 = 39.67 hours.
See the annual leave calculator found within the Helpful Resources page to assist you.
* Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, for the 2021/22 leave years, the maximum carryover of leave is calculated by dividing the total part time annual leave entitlement by a factor of 2.2. For example:
145.6 hours (annual leave allowance for part timer working 26 hours per week) ÷ 2.2 = 66.18 hours.
On 1st April 2023 the amount of leave that can be carried over will return to normal.
Further annual leave and public holidays information
You can access the Annual Leave and Public Holidays menu page to find further related content in the How To, Managers Guide and Helpful Resources pages.
Annual leave carryover - long-term sickness absence
When you are off sick, you continue to accrue annual leave.
If you are on long-term sick, you are entitled and encouraged to take your annual leave, following a dialogue with your line manager. Your leave should not involve participation in activities that may contribute to delaying your return from sickness absence and may not be approved in these circumstances (your line manager must seek advice from occupational health if there any concerns about this). As annual leave is paid it may be useful to request the leave during a period of reduced pay or no pay. You must communicate in advance with your line manager about the annual leave that you propose to take so that it can be approved for payment and any issues in relation to the management of your sick leave may be addressed, such as attendance at occupational health meetings. You will need to resume from sick, take annual leave and then report sick again at the end of your annual leave.
If you have been unable to take annual leave because of long term sickness absence, when you return to work, you will be entitled to carry over up to 4 weeks’, (20 days) annual leave, less any annual already taken, to the new leave year if:
• the long term absence on sick leave continues into a new leave year; or
• the return to duty is late in the leave year and the individual did not have the opportunity to take all their annual leave before the end of the leave year
There is no definition of ‘late in the leave year’. This can be determined by managers in the light of operational requirements and the individual circumstances.
For any annual leave carried over following long term sickness absence you must:
• take it within 18 months of the end of the leave year in which it was accrued.
• agree with your line manager as soon as possible on your return from sick leave when the leave will be taken, if there is leave to be taken
Record the carried forward leave (accrued as a result of sickness) separately from the current year’s annual leave allocation so that the correct carry forward rules can be applied.
Any outstanding leave in excess of the maximum periods for carry over, identified above, will be lost.
An example is provided in the Helpful Resources page.
All of the above carry-over entitlements apply pro-rata for staff working part time.
Further annual leave and public holidays information
You can access the Annual Leave and Public Holidays menu page to find further related content in the How To, Managers Guide and Helpful Resources pages.
Bringing forward annual leave
Staff may apply to bring forward annual leave from the next leave year up to a maximum of five days. This will be allowed only in the final month of the current leave year (i.e. March), unless there are exceptional reasons to allow it earlier.
It is important to consider that all decisions are made according to business need, and it may not be possible to approve such requests if, for example, there are a number of people in your team who still have leave to use up during the month of March. You should therefore try to manage your leave throughout the year in a planned way to avoid disappointment.
Annual leave that has been brought forward or negative time balances incurred as a result of taking more than the previous year’s annual leave entitlement must be deducted from the new-year’s annual leave allocation.
Further annual leave and public holidays information
You can access the Annual Leave and Public Holidays menu page to find further related content in the How To, Managers Guide and Helpful Resources pages.
Leaving the Met
On leaving the Met, your annual leave will be pro-rated and calculated up to the day that you leave. You should try to use up any remaining annual leave you have before your last day. If this is not possible due to operational commitments, then you can request to be paid for any remaining leave you may have, if this is supported by your line manager. Similarly, if you have taken more annual leave than you are entitled at the time that you leave the Met, this will need to be repaid to the Met through a deduction to your final salary payment.
Please see the annual leave calculator in the Helpful Resources page for further guidance.