Wiltshire Police has given the ten largest overtime payments to male officers in the last year, a freedom of information request has revealed.

The police force employs around 2,500 officers and staff, has five response hubs and is supported by nine neighbourhood policing teams across the region, including in Swindon.

But despite promoting diversity and equality, a freedom of information request has revealed that the highest paid employees for the year 2023/24 were all men.

The largest overtime rates paid to officers in the last year ranged from over £23,000 to nearly £33,000.

The 2023 gender pay gap report published by Wiltshire Police in March of this year states that as of March 31, 2023, the organisation employed more female officers and members of staff combined at 1,245, compared to 1,145 men, an increase of 34 per cent on 2019.

However, broken down into the total number of officers, the force had a higher percentage of male police officers in 2023 at 62 per cent, compared to 66 per cent in 2019.

Meanwhile, the average gender pay gap was 7.31 per cent in favour of male staff, but it was still a decrease of 1.29 per cent in 2022.

The data also shows that 63.5 per cent of male employees earned top salaries as officers and other members of staff, significantly higher than the number of women earning the same salaries. 

But Wiltshire Police employed more women than men in the lower paid roles at 56.4 per cent compared to 43.7 per cent.

In the report, Catherine Roper, Wiltshire Police Chief Constable, said: “Given that historically policing was a male-dominated profession, Wiltshire Police has focused on driving positive change to gain better equality and inclusion within our organisation.

“By unravelling the nuances of gender-based pay differences, we find valuable insights that can inform policies and practices.”

Furthermore, the freedom of information response shows the overtime payments made to police officers in 2023/24 have increased by two million pounds, with overtime rates totalling over £2.6 million in 2019/20 to over £4.6 million in 2023/24.

Deputy Chief Constable Craig Dibdin told the Advertiser: “We have internal processes in place to monitor our overall overtime spend as well as those officers and staff that are accruing the most overtime.

“This is so that we can ensure we balance the need to meet operational requirements whilst looking after the wellbeing of our officers and staff.”