Report Urges Police Scotland To Suspend Call-Centre Closures

A police watchdog has urged Police Scotland to suspend the planned closure of call centres in the north and keep them fully staffed until the new area control-room is fully operational.

Remaining personnel in the understaffed Aberdeen, Inverness and Dundee call centres are facing unacceptably high'' pressures and the practice of diverting overflow calls to the central belt is creating additional risk to the public, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) concluded.

Justice Secretary Michael Matheson directed HMICS to examine call handling following the deaths of John Yuill and Lamara Bell, who lay undiscovered for days despite a sighting of their wrecked car being reported to a police control-room.

The incident is also being investigated by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc).

HMICS will issue a full report by the end of October but it has today issued an interim recommendation stating the service centres in Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness should be maintained and staffed appropriately'' until a planned new area control-room in Dundee is fully operational.

Michael Matheson will this afternoon address MSPs on the multiple controversies that have engulfed

Police Scotland during Holyrood's summer recess. Chief Constable Sir Stephen House last week announced he will stand down earlier than expected following sustained public and political criticism over stop and search, call-centre failings, armed police, allegations of centralisation and an £11 million budget shortfall.

A second independent report into Police Scotland is due out today from the Stop and Search Advisory Group, chaired by solicitor advocate John Scott QC, with recommendations on the controversial practice of seeking consensual searches of children and present a code of practice on the use of stop and search in general.

HMICS visited call centres in Govan, Motherwell, Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness and Bilston Glen, and interviewed 45 staff.

Officials also conducted 29 focus groups involving approximately 180 staff, observed daily and weekly management meetings, observed staff at work and analysed more than 1,500 performance documents.

They audited 1,500 calls and 3,826 responses to a public questionnaire on police satisfaction.

The report noted that targets for answering 999 and 101 calls are currently being met at Govan, Motherwell and Bilston Glen, and are improving.

However, HMICS noted there have been significant issues with poor performance in the recent past''.

Performance in Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness is currently falling below target due to the pressure of call demand on remaining staff (which) remains unacceptably high, with overflow calls being routinely diverted from Dundee and Inverness to the sites in Govan, Motherwell and Bilston Glen''.

The report states: The current practice of diverting unanswered 'overflow' calls to the sites in Govan, Motherwell and Bilston Glen is creating additional risk by passing incidents back to the north area control-rooms in the absence of a single national command and control system.

We consider that this will not be fully resolved until (i) the service centres in Govan, Motherwell and Bilston Glen are fully functional with the full complement of trained staff supported by stable systems and processes which are capable of taking the additional call demand from the north and (ii) the new area control-room in Dundee is fully operational.

However, we believe strongly that the service centres in Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness should be maintained and staffed appropriately until these key elements are fully in place.''

HMICS has urged Police Scotland to stabilise staffing levels in the central belt, and accelerate recruitment in the north.

This should minimise operational risk and reduction in the quality of service to the public should there be delays to the project,'' it said.

Police Scotland is already struggling with an £11 million funding shortfall, and outgoing Chief Constable Sir Stephen House has questioned whether some of the decisions which may be required to close the gap would be politically acceptable'' to the Scottish Government and Scottish Police Authority.

HMICS has noted that the consequences of any delay to the planned call centre programme will have an impact on the achievement of savings and may result in additional risk''.

The report states: In order to effectively manage this change process and effectively learn the lessons from previous stage implementations, Police Scotland are likely to require to secure additional resources.

This should be subject to the development of a business case and associated scrutiny and approval.''

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