Amanda Blakeman, the Chief Constable of North Wales Police who earns an annual salary of £170,000, has submitted a request to retire from her position for exactly one day as part of a strategic move to preserve her pension benefits at their maximum value.
The Timeline
If her request receives final approval, Ms. Blakeman will officially retire on January 15th. She will then remain out of service for a single day before being reappointed to her position as Chief Constable on January 17th, effectively creating just a 24-hour gap in her employment.
How the Scheme Works
This arrangement operates within the framework of the national Retire and Rehire Scheme, a legitimate program that allows senior police officers to protect their pension entitlements. The mechanism addresses a specific feature of police pensions: after an officer completes 30 years of service, their pension reaches its maximum value. However, if they continue working beyond that 30-year threshold without interruption, the pension actually begins to decrease in value for each additional year served.
By instituting a formal break in service—even one as brief as a single day—the pension is frozen at its peak amount. When the officer returns to work, they essentially start accumulating benefits under fresh terms, preventing the erosion of what they’ve already earned.
Financial Details
Official records from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for North Wales reveal that Ms. Blakeman received £169,598 in compensation during the 2023-2024 financial year, making her one of the highest-paid public servants in the region.
Continuity of Operations
During Ms. Blakeman’s one-day absence, Deputy Chief Constable Nigel Harrison has been designated to assume her responsibilities temporarily, ensuring that leadership remains uninterrupted at the top of the organization.
According to statements from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, the brief transition has been carefully planned to ensure there will be no disruption whatsoever to the daily operations of North Wales Police. Emergency response capabilities, ongoing investigations, and all routine policing activities will continue without any impact on service delivery to the public.
Precedent and Approval Process
This is not an isolated case. In the previous year, Craig Guildford, who serves as Chief Constable of West Midlands Police, utilized the identical scheme, though he retired for a full month rather than a single day before returning to his position.
Ms. Blakeman’s request has already received preliminary approval from Police and Crime Commissioner Andy Dunbobbin, though it still requires final authorization from the Police and Crime Panel before it can proceed.
Official Statements
In his public comments supporting the request, Commissioner Dunbobbin emphasized that the Retire and Rehire Scheme has become widely adopted across British police forces and operates in full compliance with current guidance issued by three authoritative bodies: the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, and the College of Policing.
The Commissioner was particularly emphatic about the financial implications—or rather, the lack thereof—for local residents. “It is important to emphasise that this will come at no cost to the taxpayer and there will be no break in leadership at the head of North Wales Police,” he stated clearly.
He further added reassurances about ongoing commitment to public safety: “Chief Constable Blakeman and I, alongside all the chief officers of North Wales Police, remain as committed as ever to ensuring that our region is the safest and most secure place in the United Kingdom.”
Context and Implications
The arrangement, while perfectly legal and increasingly common among senior police leadership, highlights the complex interplay between public sector pension regulations and the desire to retain experienced senior officers in their roles. The scheme allows police forces to maintain continuity of experienced leadership while officers navigate pension rules that were designed for a different era of policing careers.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service has been following this story and providing coverage of the administrative process as it moves through various approval stages.
