Non-Subscriber Extract
Jacqui Smith's end of term report
11 June 2009
Officers who Police Review spoke to about Ms Smith's departure give her an average score of three out of 10 for her two-year term as Home Secretary, citing her failure to implement their 2007 pay award in full as an unforgiveable breach of trust.
Senior officers, however, speak well of the first female home secretary, saying that behind the scenes she was supportive, sincere and committed.
Ms Smith was appointed home secretary in June 2007 and immediately had to deal with two attempted terrorist attacks at Glasgow airport and in central London. During her term, she faced more difficult issues including the proposed 42-day detention for terrorist suspects and the European court ruling that the 'blanket' retention of innocent people's information on the DNA database is unlawful.
She also pushed through changes in policing such as a single measure of public confidence, rolling out Taser to non-firearms officers and changes to injury benefits for officers, such as the introduction of life-long adult survivor benefits and the extension of survivor benefits to unmarried partners.
But many officers will always associate her with the 2007 pay row. In December that year, Ms Smith refused to accept the police arbitration tribunal's recommendation of a 2.5 per cent pay rise, backdated to September, and decided the rise should only start from December. This meant officers effectively only received a 1.9 per cent rise, leaving them out of pocket and very angry.
However, Bernard Hogan-Howe, chief constable of Merseyside Police, says: 'In my view Ms Smith has been a good home secretary. She seems to me to have the public interest at heart. She demanded a lot from the police service, but she was always prepared to listen and appeared to be a sincere and committed person.'