Current policy of police officer 28 days notice to move or change of shift

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.025311

I note you seek access to the following information:

I would like to know what the current policy or policies are around a police officer being forced to move to a new place of work within the Met Police district and a change or working hours.

Do they have to be given 28 days notice prior to a move or is it a case of them be given 28 days notice only for a notification of shift change.

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

The guidance for managing compulsory moves through change is as follows:

Where a compulsory move is planned and the Change Team is asked to support that activity (e.g. a large scale or significant movement of staff) then commonly the approach advised would be:

• Seek volunteers in the first instance if only part movement of workforce required

• If insufficient volunteers and only part movement of workforce required then a compulsory posting assessment framework might be advised, considering the various factors that would ultimately be worked through to determine who moves (appeal route provided)

• If everything else is equal then a random selection process could be considered to select who moves as part of the part movement of workforce

• In the scenario, that the whole workforce is due to move then we would advise that notice of intention to move is provided (alongside a comms/engagement/ consultation approach) alongside a process to consider individual exceptions/considerations raised that would otherwise reasonably prevent moving that individual

The above type of approach should all be subject to consultation with Fed/TUS and equality considerations throughout.

Commonly, at least 28 days’ notice of a move date will be made as that is generally considered reasonable.

Corporate postings – through promotions or recruitment activity are usually 3 months.
Voluntary moves and shift changes are 28 days notice through police regulations.