Police Scotland may reduce key services as budget squeezed

Police Scotland may have to pull back from key services like community policing as it eyes budget cuts, MSPs have been warned.

Even the future of the 101 non-emergency call service is being questioned, senior officials told a Holyrood committee, with forecasts expecting around 4,400 officer and staff jobs could go over four years.

An SNP member of the Criminal Justice Committee said Wednesday's evidence was the most "stark" he had heard in years, while a Conservative said it was "terrifying".

It comes after the Scottish Government's resource spending review said both the police and the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) should "plan for a flat-cash settlement over the period" up to 2026-27.

Police Scotland's deputy chief officer David Page and other officials set out the impact of inflation on the force's budget, saying "very, very difficult decisions" are ahead.

Financial projections have been made on the understanding a 5% pay award will be agreed, he said.

Mr Page said: "The vast majority of our budget is people, so any cuts on our budget will fall squarely on people - police and staff who make up Police Scotland."

Reducing numbers would make Police Scotland more reliant on support from other forces in England and Wales at major events, he said, a practice known as mutual aid.

He said: "We're looking at things like having to pull back from the types of policing we do at the minute because we won't have bodies to do it, to be quite frank.

"Things like community policing, campus cops, which incidents do we attend in terms of roads policing.

"Mental wellbeing, things like that."

Saying the police often have to pick up "slack" from other government agencies, he added: "Our ability to answer 999 calls, it will be slowed.

"The 101, service, do we continue with that?

"If we don't continue with the 101 service, all that will do is shift people into dialling 999."

Response policing, digital forensics and public protection are all areas which will be squeezed, he said.

He continued: "There's a real concern we won't be able to discharge our duties as we currently do."

Conservative MSP Jamie Greene asked him if this is a realistic scenario.

Mr Page said all of these service areas are currently under consideration, while his colleague James Gray - the force's chief financial officer - said they are not "scaremongering".

Mr Greene asked Mr Page if he agrees with the Scottish Police Federation's comments that crime would increase, victims would be let down and public confidence would diminish.

Mr Page responded: "I think if you look at experience in England and Wales you'd have to agree with that."

Conservative MSP Russell Findlay asked why the chief constable was not giving evidence to the committee, with Mr Page saying it was because it concerned a budget matter.

Mr Findlay said there were reports the chief constable was "pursuing other roles", to which Mr Page replied: "The chief constable's looking at the other roles was not in connection to the budget.

"He's fully committed to Police Scotland going forwards."

The Tory MSP later said much of the evidence had been "terrifying".

The SNP's Fulton MacGregor said the officials' statements had been the "starkest" he had heard in his six years at Holyrood.

"We need to sit up and take note," he added.

Earlier, a union representing police staff called for urgent intervention from the Scottish Government following warnings of "massive cuts" to Police Scotland's budget which it said could risk public safety.

Unison has called on ministers to "prioritise public safety" and "properly fund the police service" after warnings 4,500 jobs could be cut.

Justice Secretary Keith Brown said:

"Our largely fixed budgets and limited fiscal powers means the UK Government needs to provide the Scottish Government with sufficient funding to support public services and the economy in these difficult times.

"We have already made difficult choices to support pay offers in 2022-23 and rightly so, as our police workforce deserve this.

"While policing matters and budgetary prioritisation are always a matter for the chief constable, we remain fully committed to using the resources available to us to support the vital work of Police Scotland in delivering effective and responsive policing across Scotland.

"We will work with justice organisations including Police Scotland and SPA to develop and co-ordinate their delivery plans in response to the high-level spending review allocations.

"Despite UK Government austerity we have increased police funding year-on-year since 2016-17 and have invested more than £10 billion in policing since the creation of Police Scotland in 2013."

A Treasury spokesperson said:

"The responsibility for funding public services is largely devolved across the UK, but we have provided the Scottish Government with a record £41 billion per year for the next three years - the highest spending review settlement since devolution."

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