Quick regs

Rest day cancelled

• Fewer than 15 clear days' notice (don't count the day you were told or the rest day itself): time and a half. That's 3/64 of a day's pay for every completed 15 minutes.
• 15 clear days or more: no extra pay, but you get another rest day. You should be told which day within 4 days.
• Minimum 4 hours. Under 4 hours is paid as 4, unless it was an hour or less straight after a normal shift.
• You asked to work it? Then you get another rest day instead, not the extra pay.
• Time off instead: within 28 days you can choose time off at time and a half.

Example: 10 hours at short notice is £362.42. Work out yours with the calculator.

Annex H paragraphs 1(a)-(c), 1(e), 3(h), 3(j).

Working a public holiday

• Which days: Christmas Day, Good Friday and bank holidays. Also 26 December and 1 January when they fall on a weekend.
• Pay: double time. That's 1/16 of a day's pay for every completed 15 minutes.
• Fewer than 8 days' notice: double time and another day off too. You should be told which day within 4 days.
• Fewer than 15 days' notice needs sign-off from an officer above chief superintendent.
• Minimum 4 hours, with no exception.
• Time off instead: within 28 days you can choose double the time off.

Example: 10 hours on a public holiday is £483.23. Full guide to bank holidays.

Police Regulations 2003, regulation 3 ("public holiday"). Annex H paragraphs 1(d), 1(e), 1(k), 3(c), 3(h).

Overtime (late finish)

• What counts: time you stay on after your rostered shift ends.
• Pay: time and a third. That's 1/24 of a day's pay for every completed 15 minutes.
• Told at the start of your shift that you'd stay on: it counts from 15 minutes.
• Not told: under 30 minutes doesn't count. On the first four times in a week, the first 30 minutes aren't paid. From the fifth time that week, all of it is.
• Your force sets the day its overtime week starts. Some forces have a local agreement on the 30 minutes, so check yours.

Example: 2 hours of paid overtime is £64.43. Full guide to police overtime.

Police Regulations 2003, regulation 25. Annex G paragraph 1.

TOIL (time off instead of overtime pay)

• Choose TOIL before the end of the pay period the overtime falls in.
• You get the overtime back as time off, plus 15 minutes for every completed 45 minutes. The same 30-minute rules apply.
• Your force should give you the time off within 3 months, as far as duty allows.

Example: 1 h 30 m of overtime you were told about at the start gives 2 h of TOIL. Full guide to TOIL.

Annex G paragraphs 1(e)-(f).

Called back between shifts

• Being recalled to duty between two shifts counts as overtime, at time and a third. Being told to be ready in case you're needed doesn't.
• Your travelling time for the recall is paid too.
• There's no 4-hour minimum. It was abolished on 1 April 2012. (The 4-hour minimum on a rest day or public holiday is a separate rule, and still applies.)
• If it cuts your rest below 11 hours, see rest between shifts.

Full guide to being called back between shifts.

Police Regulations 2003, regulation 25(1)(b) and 25(2). Home Office Circular 010/2012, Recommendation 6.

Start brought forward

• Due notice is at least 8 hours before the new start time.
• If your start is brought forward without due notice, on a day you've already done your normal day's duty, the early time counts as overtime.

Police Regulations 2003, regulation 25(1)(c) and 25(2).

Rest between shifts and rest days

• Rosters should give you at least 11 hours between the end of one shift and the start of the next.
• They should give you no more than 7 days between rest days, and two rest days a week.
• If a change means you work without those gaps, you're entitled to the same amount of rest back (compensatory rest).
• Rosters are published at least one month before they start, and cover at least 3 months.

How these play out on 6 on 4 off and 4 on 4 off rotas, and across the common police shift patterns.

Annex E paragraphs 3(b), 3(c), 3(e)-(g) and 4(a).

Meal breaks

On variable shifts, for a continuous spell of 5 hours or more, as far as duty allows:

On a normal 8-hour day, the break is 45 minutes.

Annex E paragraph 1(c).

Called in on annual leave

This applies when you're called in, or required to work, during a break of 3 days or more that includes at least one day of annual leave. Each day of leave or TOIL you lose gets you:

• First and second day: 2 days' annual leave, or 1 day's leave plus 1 day's pay at double time.
• Third day onwards: 1½ days' annual leave, or 1 day's leave plus half a day's pay at double time.

Annex O paragraph 5.

Where this comes from

• Police Regulations 2003, regulation 3 and regulation 25 (legislation.gov.uk).
• Annex E (duty and rosters) and Annex H (rest days and public holidays), GOV.UK.
• Annex G (overtime), from the determinations under the Police Regulations 2003, as amended by Home Office Circular 010/2012, GOV.UK.
• Annex O (annual leave) and Annex F (pay, from 1 September 2025), GOV.UK.
• A day's pay is your yearly basic salary ÷ 52 ÷ 5 (Annex H 3(b)). Counting clear days follows the Police Federation's guidance.

Every shift, worked out for you

SHFTRS works this out for every shift, automatically. It keeps your rota and every change to it, and tells you what you're owed. It's built by police, for police.

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