Over the past seven days or so there has been much debate within the Federation about a proposal from our Joint Central Committee to increase subscription costs by £4.03p to £21.58p per month (23%) with effect from 1st January 2010.
 
The system by which the various component parts of the Police Federation are funded has been a longstanding issue for the organisation and there are a myriad of differing opinions across the country as to how or if it could be improved.
 
Throughout these discussions, whilst not disputing that reform is required, those charged with representing our Branch Board view have argued that approaching our members to increase subscriptions should be the position of last resort and not the default position.
 
We believe that further work is required to satisfy us and the wider   membership that a rise of anything like this proportion is required. 

Consequently we supported the action taken last week by the Met Constables Branch Board in calling into question the legality of the JCC implementing the proposed rise in January.
 
As a result of that challenge further discussions took place and a decision has now been taken to put any rise on hold until the matter can be discussed by all the delegates to the PFEW Annual Conference in May.
 
We recognise that planned changes to the way in which the Government funds the Legal Aid scheme mean that a rise in subscription rates is almost inevitable. However we are also concious that particularly in the current economic climate our members will rightly  expect 'value for money' to be clearly demonstrated throughout the Federation and so please be assured that we are doing our very best to ensure that this issue is resolved in a way that satisfies the needs of Federation and its members.

JEC Circulars 70 & 71 of 2009 which are available from your local rep detail the Joint MPF response to this issue.