Chief Constable Rod Hansen’s £150k plus salary is still being paid for by Gloucestershire police while he works for the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

Mr Hansen’s suspension was lifted last month by Police and Crime Commissioner Chris Nelson and he was redeployed to help the national body with work on police reform.

The Conservative had suspended Mr Hansen on October 7 after he was issued with a gross misconduct notice by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

Mr Nelson lifted the suspension as the grounds for it are no longer met after a change in circumstances – this decision does not affect the ongoing IOPC investigation.

Three of the county’s MPs have since written to Mr Nelson demanding to know more about his role in the lifting of the suspension of Chief Constable Rod Hansen after Gloucestershire Constabulary announced police redundancies in an effort to find an extra £12.3m by the end of the next financial year.

Mr Nelson said last month that the suspension was lifted because of a “change in circumstances” and that “the NPCC offered Mr Hansen a redeployment to a non-public facing role.”

Cameron Thomas, MP for Tewkesbury, says he later discovered that Mr Nelson had contacted the NPCC with such a proposal back in October.

Mr Thomas also says he found out that Gloucestershire will continue to pay Mr Hansen’s sizeable salary despite his deployment outside the county. According to Government figures, the chief constable’s pay for Gloucestershire was £158,757 as of April 2024.

The concerned politicians want to know why the county’s taxpayers are continuing to fund a chief constable’s considerable salary while he is working elsewhere in the country, particularly at a time when the constabulary has a multi-million pound shortfall in its budget.

Mr Nelson said he is satisfied all of the decisions he has made since the investigation began and that they have been in accordance with the regulations.

He said they had asked that Mr Hansen’s salary costs be covered as part of redeployment but this was rejected.

“This situation is unprecedented and we arrive here because a redeployment opportunity was made,” he said.

“This means the grounds for suspension, as set out in the regulations, were no longer met and I had no option other than to agree to it.

“It is important to note that all officers, whilst suspended pending an investigation, are on full pay. We asked that salary costs were covered as part of the redeployment but this was declined.

“Regarding the letter from the MPs, there have been at least three attempts from my office to contact Cameron Thomas’ office – once directly by my deputy prior to their press release being issued, a phone call to his chief of staff and thirdly, an email, inviting the three MPs to attend a briefing to discuss the matter. So far there has been no response.

“I am not inclined to have a public debate through the media, not least because an investigation is still going-on and I have a duty to ensure that the process continues unhindered.