RUC

IODPA is a UK based charity that supports injured officers in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Until recently PSNI and RUC officers have been well supported by other methods. As that support has now dissipated we have attended Belfast to hold a number of exploratory meetings. I think it’s fair to say, that we’re shocked at what we found.

First, it may be worth explaining that whilst England and Wales have The (Police Injury) Benefit Regulations 2006, Scotland have The Police (Injury Benefit) (Scotland) Regulations 2007 and Northern Ireland have the POLICE SERVICE OF NORTHERN IRELAND AND POLICE SERVICE OF NORTHERN IRELAND RESERVE (INJURY BENEFIT) REGULATIONS 2006, they have their differences.

The Regulations for England/Wales and Scotland are virtually identical, the NI Regulations differ in their appeal process. The process for England/Wales/Scotland is an appeal to a Police Medical Appeal Board (PMAB) which is a panel of doctors, one of whom is usually a medial specialist in the appropriate field for the applicant.

Appeals in NI are made through the Department of Justice (DOJ) to an Independent Medical Referee (IMR). A further appeal can be made to a ‘tribunal’. The Secretary of State, on receiving such notice of appeal, shall appoint an appeal tribunal .. consisting of three persons, including a barrister or solicitor of not less than seven years’ standing and a retired police officer or retired member of a police force in Great Britain who, before he retired, held a rank not lower than that of superintendent.

The other main difference is that the awards are administered by the Northern Ireland Policing Board (NIPB) rather than a Police Pension Authority (PPA).

On first analysis the main problems that we perceive are as follows –

• Some appeals have been pending for 2, 3, 4, 5 years or more!!! This is disgraceful.
• Interference by the NIPB in the judicial process as demonstrated by the case of JUSTIN CHADWICK AND ANDREW HARVISON FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW AND IN THE MATTER OF DECISIONS OF THE NORTHERN IRELAND POLICING BOARD.
• We hear that the two SMPs also act as the IMRs but are supposed to be independent to each other. It appears that they work from the same office effectively marking each others homework.
• No choice of solicitors for members. We believe members deserve a choice and to be able to choose solicitors and know they will be pro-active in their cases.
• In 2014, the NIPB commissioned a report from David Scoffield QC into the injury regulations and their processes at the time, some of which they still cling onto today. One such recommendation is that SMPs should not make any sort of financial comparison in order to determine loss of earning capacity. Whilst this advice and methodology is not outside of the regulations, it means that the SMP makes a determination regarding banding without any documented rationale, which means that it cannot be scrutinised or challenged.
• England/Scotland/Wales have an equal spread of the four injury bands (1-4) whilst a band 4 is rarely awarded in NI.
• The NIPB have recently put SMP guidance on a statutory footing. The guidance is 8 years old and contains case law which is equally out of date. It is not known what the update process is for these guidelines, or what safeguards there are for pensioners. Even though we don’t agree with them, it is ironic that they don’t adhere to their own guidelines.

We are currently considering a number of legal challenges to the processes and will update our members shortly with how you can assist with funding.

If there are Northern Ireland officers/pensioners that are in the process that haven’t yet made contact with us or attended our meeting please use the ‘contact’ form on our website.

We will be publishing a series of blogs over the coming weeks with more information.