Police guides · officers in England and Wales
Called back between shifts: is it overtime?
Yes. Being recalled to duty between two shifts is paid as overtime, at time and a third, and the time you spend travelling counts too. There's no 4-hour minimum: that went in 2012.
These are the national rules for full-time constables and sergeants. Inspectors and above, part-time officers and police staff have different rules. Money examples use pay point 7 (£50,256 a year), before tax.
What counts as a recall
A recall is being called back to work in the gap between two rostered shifts, after you've gone off duty. The regulations call a shift a "tour of duty", so you'll see this written as "recalled between two tours of duty".
Being told to be ready in case you're needed isn't a recall. The regulations say a warning to be in readiness for duty doesn't count. Nothing is owed under this rule until you're actually called back in.
What you're paid
A recall is one of the three kinds of overtime in the Police Regulations, alongside staying on after your shift and a start brought forward without due notice. It's paid at the overtime rate: 1/24 of a day's pay for every completed 15 minutes. That's time and a third.
- A day's pay is your yearly basic salary ÷ 52 ÷ 5. At pay point 7 that's £193.29.
- One 15-minute block is £8.05, so an hour is £32.22.
- Only completed blocks count. 1 hour 10 minutes pays as 1 hour.
Example: you're called back for 2 hours 30 minutes, and your travel there and back comes to 30 minutes. That's 3 hours, or 12 blocks: £96.65.
Example: a 40-minute recall with 30 minutes of travel is 1 hour 10 minutes. That's 4 completed blocks: £32.22.
These examples take nothing off the time. The 30-minute rule is written for an unplanned late finish, and this guide doesn't settle whether your force also applies it to a recall. Ask your Fed rep before you rely on a figure.
Travelling time counts
The time you spend travelling to and from the recall is part of what you're paid for, not just the time at work. So a short job can still add up to a reasonable amount of overtime once the journey is counted.
Write down the time you were called, when you left, when you arrived, when you finished and when you got home. Those five times are what the claim rests on, and they're hard to reconstruct a week later.
No 4-hour minimum
A recall used to be paid as at least 4 hours however short it was. That minimum was abolished on 1 April 2012, following the first part of the Winsor review. A one-hour recall is now paid as one hour: £32.22, not the £128.86 that 4 hours would come to.
The 4-hour minimum on a rest day worked at short notice and on a public holiday is a separate rule, and still applies. Don't let anyone tell you it went in 2012 as well.
Less than 11 hours' rest
Rosters should give you at least 11 hours between the end of one shift and the start of the next. If a recall means you work without that gap, you're entitled to the same amount of rest back. The regulations call this compensatory rest.
The pay and the rest are two separate entitlements. Getting the overtime doesn't cancel the rest you're owed, and taking the rest doesn't cancel the overtime. How and when your force gives you the rest back is a question for your duties office. The rules on rest between shifts.
Rest days, public holidays and leave
This rule is for the gap between two working days. If you're called in on a day you weren't due to work at all, a different rule applies, and most of them pay more:
- A rest day: time and a half with fewer than 15 clear days' notice, with a 4-hour minimum. Work out what it's worth.
- A public holiday: double time, with a 4-hour minimum. How bank holiday pay works.
- During a break of 3 days or more that includes annual leave: extra days of leave, or leave plus pay at double time, for each day you lose. Quick regs.
Time off instead
Overtime can be taken as time off (TOIL) instead of pay, if you choose before the end of the pay period it falls in. You get the time back plus 15 minutes for every completed 45 minutes, and your force should give it to you within 3 months. How TOIL is worked out. Ask your duties office how your force records a recall for TOIL.
Where this comes from
- Police Regulations 2003, regulation 25, paragraph 1(b) (recall between two tours of duty) and paragraph 2 (a warning to be in readiness for duty isn't a recall), legislation.gov.uk.
- Annex G paragraph 1 (the overtime rate), from the determinations under the Police Regulations 2003, as amended by Home Office Circular 010/2012, Recommendation 6 (the end of the 4-hour minimum for recalls), GOV.UK.
- Annex E paragraphs 3(b) and 3(e) to 3(g) (11 hours' rest and compensatory rest), GOV.UK.
- Annex F (pay scales), GOV.UK.
This is general guidance, not legal or financial advice, and it isn't a decision by your force. If something matters, check it with your Federation rep.
Every change to your rota, kept for you
SHFTRS keeps your rota and every change to it, with the times you were told and the hours you worked, so the record is there when a pay query comes. It's built by police, for police.