ALL police officers should be made to take an annual fitness test, with a pay cut for those who repeatedly fail, a review said today.

Tom Winsor, who has carried out the widest-ranging review of police pay and conditions in more than 30 years, said those who fail the test three times should be subject to disciplinary procedures and a pay cut.

Chief constables should be able to make any officer redundant as part of budget cuts, ending the prospect of a job for life, the report said.

It also recommended that applicants should be able to enter the police service directly at inspector rank, and, "after rigorous testing", at superintendent rank.

Mr Winsor said: "It is clear that the existing pay system is unfair and inefficient.

"It was designed in 1920 and has remained largely unchanged since 1978."

But he added: "Officers who work on the front line, exercising their powers as constables in the most difficult circumstances, have nothing to fear from this review."

Mr Winsor said: "I think the public will be surprised that after passing a fitness test at the point of entry, except in special units like firearms, physical fitness is not tested again in a 30, 35-year career.''

An initial annual test requiring officers to reach level 5:4 on the bleep test should be brought in by September next year, he said.

This is equivalent to an average speed of 8.8kph (5.5mph) for three minutes 35 seconds, he said.

But this should get tougher by September 2018, along similar lines to the test currently used in Northern Ireland.

This includes climbing over walls and pulling bodies and was designed to reflect situations which "police officers do and can become involved in".

In the Metropolitan Police, more than half (52%) of its male officers are overweight, a fifth (22%) are obese, and one in 100 are "morbidly obese", the report showed.

For women officers in the Met, a third (32%) are overweight, 16% are obese and 2% are morbidly obese.

Former West Midlands chief constable Sir Edward Crew, who worked on the review, said: "We are not looking for supermen."

Mr Winsor predicted that many officers would welcome the proposals, saying they would see it "as a necessary protection for themselves and the public".

Mr Winsor also said a "system of compulsory severance for police officers with less than full pensionable service, analogous to redundancy, would materially improve the ability of chief officers to alter forces' workforce size, structure and composition according to the projected needs of those forces and the public they serve''.

The starting salary for police constables should also be cut, from the current £23,500 to £19,000 for someone with A-levels but no police-related experience or qualifications, he said.

And new educational requirements should also be brought in, with applicants needing three A-levels at A to C or equivalent qualifications, NVQ level three.

"It just makes a lot more sense," he said.

It comes after the North Yorkshire force had "several hundred thousand" applications for just 70 vacancies while Suffolk had to introduce a system where only the first 500 applicants would be considered.

Mr Winsor said direct entry candidates would be able to go from constable to inspector in three years, rather than the current 17.

The new inspectors could be as young as 24, he said.

And applicants would be able to become superintendents with eight years of police service.

About 80 people are expected to take part in the first course for inspectors, with around 30 trying to become superintendents, the report said.

Among the 121 recommendations, Mr Winsor also called for chief constables to make more use of "rank skipping'', saying an officer should not have to serve at every rank in his career "if he is considered ready for promotion to a rank higher than the next''.

The normal pension age for police officers should be set at 60, in line with Lord Hutton’s recommendations, it said.

Officers on restricted duties who are not able to carry out the work of a constable after a year should see their pay cut by the lower of either 8% or £2,922 per year, Mr Winsor said.

Police should also be able to be "seconded to organisations outside policing" for up to five years, he said.

Outstanding candidates from business, the military and the security services should be encouraged to apply under the recommended direct entry scheme, he added.

The scheme would involve external candidates working for a year as a constable before becoming a sergeant and undergoing a two-year course of learning and operational experience at the National Police College before automatically becoming an inspector upon successful completion.

Internal candidates would be able to make the inspector grade in two years.

The Police Federation of England and Wales, which represents rank-and-file officers, said: "Enough is enough."

Paul McKeever, the federation’s chairman, said of serving officers: "Despite a growing list of demands and the reality of the cuts, they are doing their very best, but they know the Government cuts are jeopardising public safety and the quality of service they are able to provide. The service cannot take any more; enough is enough."

He went on: "Without the need to even turn a page I can tell you what police officers are currently thinking.

"They have already made a significant contribution to tackle the national debt; we’ve seen a minimum 20% cut to the police budget; the loss of 16,000 police officers expected over the next four years; £300 million removed from police pay; increased pension contributions; a two-year public sector pay freeze and then a capped 1% increase in years three and four.

"How much more are police officers expected to take?"

Mr McKeever added: "Police officers have had enough of the constant state of uncertainty and the deliberate, sustained attack on them by this Government.

"They want to get on with the job they joined to do, serving their communities, and they expect the support of Government.

"Instead they find themselves contending with cuts to pay and conditions of service, increased stress and pressures, falling numbers of police officers, low morale and the privatisation of essential police functions."

Chief Constable Peter Fahy, the lead on workforce development for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said "the need to reform the way our staff are rewarded and developed is not driven by money alone".

"Policing has become far more complex and specialised," he said.

"Our staff want to see their individual talent and contribution recognised and the public want to see police effort targeted where it will have most impact."

He went on: "Chief officers have been clear that we will need radical approaches to absorb the current and future budget cuts and maintain the protection of the public.

"At the same time we must not put in danger the core ethos of service and self-sacrifice in policing that has served this country well."