EXCLUSIVE: Police Federation defends £342,000 salary of CEO Mukund Krishna after it reluctantly confirms basic pay

THE Police Federation has defended paying its CEO an eye watering more than twice the Prime Minister's salary, saying he has "resolved potentially catastrophic legal risks at a fraction of the potential liability."

It came after the federatioin  reluctantly confirmed CEO Mukund Krishna was paid a basic salary of £342,000 in 2024.

Sir Keir Starmer gets about £166,000 a year.

A federation spokesperson said: “We are delivering the professional leadership and financial stability that our 150,000 members need. The CEO’s remuneration was agreed in 2023 by the Federation’s National Board and benchmarked to ensure it was right for the scale of the challenges the organisation faced and the skillset needed to resolve those challenges.

“Since 2023, the Federation has stabilised its finances, resolved potentially catastrophic legal risks at a fraction of the potential liability, rebuilt reserves, invested in our representatives and services, and secured more than £150 million in compensation for members. These results reflect the reform and transformation programme backed by the National Board and the overwhelming majority of our branches.”

It came after Labour MP Jonathan Hinder, a former Met police inspector, called for the "overhaul" of the federation after it emerged how much his salary was at a time when there were fears it was going bust.

Mr Krishna was the federation's Chief Operating Officer until its National Board took the decision to create a CEO role and award it to him with the increased salary package.

The federation also confirmed he was given the CEO role without it being advertised to any other potential candidates, according to a Freedom of Information Act response also posted on X by a whistleblowing account.

Until now, the federation had refused to confirm to members, whose around 145,000 ,members' subscriptions fund it, how much he was being paid after rumours circulated over his pay when the role was created in July 2023.

Mr Hinder, the MP for Pendle & Clitheroe, and a former police inspector with the Met, has previously raised the federation's lack of transparency in Parliament.

He posted on X: "340k basic salary for a position the CEO created for himself, paid for by frontline police officers’ subs.

"Meanwhile officers elected to speak up for the frontline are steadily removed through opaque processes.

"Time for a complete overhaul of this monopoly."

It is classed as a staff association, as opposed to a union as police officers are banned by law from industrial action, but is treated as a public body and subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The federation rejected a series of Freedom of Information Act requests for details of his salary, citing an exemption that the salary was earmarked for future publication in its annual accounts, which are due each year.

However, the beleaguered organisation has not published any beyond its 2022 accounts, leading to a reprimand from the Home Office to which it is accountable, and meaning those for 2023 and 2024 are late.

Concerns have also been raised about senior members, who raised questions about the role, salary and lack of transparency, being ousted from the federation through use of its disciplinary process.

It appears to have been forced to reveal details of Mr Krishna's remuneration after a member who had an FOIA request for the information refused made a complaint to the data watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

Rob Riddell, the member behind the ICO complaint, said: "As a subscribing member I was horrified to listen to rumours of exuberant spending within (the federation's Leatherhead HQ) at a time police officers across the UK were struggling to make ends meet.

"The position of CEO crept upon us as members, a role completely unnecessary in my opinion for an organisation that is as much obliged to comply with the code of ethics as I and the rest of the police family are.

"But to learn of salaries being paid in the hundreds of thousands a year out of our subs whilst colleagues were being turned away for legal funding was a step too far.

"There was a staunch and persistent blockade by the federation to release this information, despite it being requested by a paying member."

The federation's response to Mr Riddell posted on X said: "In the interests of transparency by design and default, we have decided to provide the information ahead of the imminent publication of the fiscal year 2023 accounts and the fiscal year 2024 accounts."

After repeated delays, it pledged the 2022 accounts would be published by the end of 2025 with those for 2024 in early 2026.

In September Mr Hinder asked in Parliament of the federation: "Will the new ministerial team commit to reviewing whether this monopoly can really serve the interest of our brave police officers?"

He later posted a video of his speech on X adding:  "(officers) need a democratic staff association that stands up for their best interests - that is not what they are getting from the Police Federation right now."

The lack of transparency has led to mounting criticism, including the creation of a dedicated whistleblowing account on X, which posted Mr Riddell's FOIA response on Tuesday<Nov25>.

In November 2024 the account PFEW_Whistle speculated he was earning around £280,000 a year and that he had been awarded an extra bonus for his work to finalise a settlement in a high-profile pension discrimination case.

In a post on November 19, the account posted: "At today’s National Council, PFEW_HQ’s CEO has announced he will be receiving a financial bonus for closing the settlement."

There were no details of any bonuses in the FOIA response and it said his role did not include any "ancillary items."

Mr Krishna, who had no previous experience in policing, was brought in through an agency to help with running the federation in 2019 and was made its Chief Operating Officer in 2021.

The role of CEO was said to have been created for him to deal with the fallout of the pension case employment tribunal outcome in 2023.

The tribunal found it had discriminated against officers who had previously made claims against the Government after being moved onto pension schemes that reduced their benefits.

The full implications of the settlement are yet to be realised, but the federation hit further financial difficulties in May this year after it agreed to settle for £15 million a claim brought by more than 19,000 officers whose data protection was breached during two ransomware cyber-attacks the federation suffered in March 2019.

Mr Krishna and the federation have been contacted for comment.

A federation spokesperson said in September: "We are committed to full transparency. The 2023 accounts have been prepared and are currently undergoing independent review by KPMG, one of the Big Four audit firms. They will be published shortly, with the 2024 accounts to follow soon after. We have, of course, kept the Home Office fully up to date at every stage.

"The federation has been dealing with two historic group action claims which meant that (its) going concern status was at risk. Under the CEO, both cases have been settled, and the federation's financial position is more certain, and so accounts can now be passed to KPMG to be signed off.

"Transparency and accountability are central to the federation’s transformation programme, and we will continue to meet those obligations.

"Since the appointment of a CEO, the organisation has stabilised its finances, settled major legal claims, and launched Operation Peridot — a five-year programme of reform focused on advocacy, culture, governance, and financial resilience. It has strengthened engagement with members and branches, commissioned an independent review, and is driving the most significant changes in the federation’s history to ensure it delivers effectively for all members."

The Home Office has also been contacted for comment.

In September a Home Office spokesperson said: "The Home Office is clear that the Police Federation needs to operate with high standards of transparency and act in the interests of its members."

It added that it was "aware of the late publication of the annual accounts' and 'has brought this to the attention of the Police Federation."

The spokesperson added:  "An independent report published earlier this year made recommendations on improving the federation, including the management and transparency of their accounts. The federation is due to bring forward a transformation plan in response to that report imminently."

The organisation is bound by the The Police Federation (England and Wales) Regulations 2017 which state that: "After the end of each financial year the national treasurer must publish the branch accounts and the Federation accounts for that year, together with a copy of the auditor’s report on the Federation accounts, on the internet."

Its first set of accounts for the calendar year 2017 were not published until May 2020, followed by those for 2018 in September the same year and its 2019 accounts came out in February 2021.

ts accounts for 2020 were not published until May 2022, those for 2021 came out in October 2023 and 2022's were not published until January 2025.

The 2022 accounts were so late that in the accompanying annual report it detailed events that had taken place in the following year.

The 2022 annual report from Mr Kempton said: "There are no significant events in 2022 however subsequently on the 6th of June 2023, Police Federation of England and Wales received the Employment Tribunal’s judgment of the police pension discrimination claim, brought against PFEW. The Tribunal ruled in favour of the claimants on a number of claims and in July 2023, PFEW decided not to pursue an appeal against the judgment issued.

"This extraordinary depletion of our cash reserves reduces the organisation's resilience against future events. The organisation would find it hard placed to survive another unexpected loss of similar magnitude. Nonetheless, we have prepared these financial statements under the going concern assumption."

He claimed in the report that the federation would become more transparent about its finances and other areas.

He added: "As an improvement to the organisation, to limit the potential of such events recurring, we have embarked on a journey to improve the management structure and culture within the organisation. The aim is to increase professionalism, accountability and transparency in all areas, resulting in savings from our current operations in the coming year, which will be directed to this remedy as well."

An independent review of the federation was started under Mr Krishna which published an interim report in November 2024.

This revealed that its accounts for 2023 had been available in a draft format since at least then.

The report blasted the federation for failures in publishing accounts and "poor formal record keeping."

It said: "Minutes were not routinely taken of meetings other than at formal Boards and Council; there is no indication whether papers promised to be distributed to Boards were in fact sent out."

An update published this April released a series of recommendations on how to improve its accountability.