Police Scotland warns government spending plans could lead to officers lacking basic equipment

There’s a warning police officers in Scotland could be left without basic equipment such as body cameras as a result of the draft budget.

Police Scotland Deputy Chief Officer Dave Page has written to Holyrood’s Justice Sub-Committee on Policing describing his “disappointment” at the spending plans.

Under the plans, the officer said the capital budget at Police Scotland will suffer a real-terms drop - meaning modernisation plans will not be enacted this year.

Despite the force receiving an extra £17 million in its resource budget above what was expected before plans were announced, Mr Page said Police Scotland will still be dealing with a #49 million deficit in the next financial year.

In the letter, he said: “The draft funding settlement for policing in 2020-21 includes an uplift of revenue funding of £37 million, which is £17 million higher than originally anticipated.

“This is something that we welcome. It represents a 3.3% increase in the revenue budget.”

But he added: “We are disappointed that the 2020-21 draft budget continues the long-term trend of Police Scotland being structurally underfunded.”

Mr Page said Police Scotland made the Scottish Government aware of the need for £74 million in capital spending as far back as last summer but just £44.6 million has been proposed in the draft budget, £5 million of which is to be set aside to aid efforts to decarbonise the police fleet.

He wrote: “Whilst we are very grateful for the additional £5 million provided to support our ambition for greening the Police Scotland fleet, we are very disappointed that in real terms the capital available to Police Scotland (excluding the £5 million earmarked for the greening of the fleet) is actually a real-terms reduction on last year - which is the second consecutive year our available capital has reduced.”

Mr Page added: “The impact of this settlement is that no new change improvement activity will be possible in 2020-21.

“This means, for example, that we will only be able to issue mobile devices to some of our officers, nor will we be able to commence the work to equip Police Scotland officers with body-worn video (BWV).

“This equipment, which is basic equipment issued to officers in England and Wales, was one of the key recommendations made by Dame Elish Angiolini's independent review into complaints handling, investigations and misconduct issues.

“This is a vital piece of equipment to assist in the safeguarding of officers health and safety and can be a key tool in the investigation of complaints against the police.”

The capital budget is also used for maintenance of the police estate, which has been reported in recent months to be in need of repair in several places across Scotland - including a police station in Broughty Ferry where the roof collapsed last month.

Mr Page claimed stations across the country would continue to deteriorate if funding is not made available.

He said: “There will be less than half the level of funding required to maintain the policing estate at its current low level, so further deterioration and failure can be expected in 2020-21.”

Liam Kerr, the justice spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives, said: “The funding settlement from the SNP Government to police isn't anything like good enough.

“And there's no excuse for this underinvestment, given the huge swathes of cash going into policing down south, which means the SNP has Barnett Consequentials to spend here.

“The new Finance Secretary needs to take these calls seriously and think again about putting more cash into this most vital of public services.”

Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said:

“While officer deployment is a matter for the Chief Constable we have worked with Police Scotland to maintain and improve its service to the public, including providing significantly more officers than at any time before 2007 – despite the constraints on Scotland’s public services through a decade of UK Government austerity – while numbers in England and Wales were cut by up to 20,000 over the same period.

“Police Scotland’s published sub-national statistics show that in the North East policing division there are currently 1,141 local police officers, compared to 1,072 in December 2013. These local officers are supplemented by 647 North Region officers providing specialist support, and a further 1,525 officers from across Scotland as part of the national resource.

“In spite of the UK Government’s failure to provide clarity on funding for Scotland next year, we have committed to providing an extra £42 million for Police Scotland’s annual budget – a 3.6% rise to more than £1.2 billion – that will ensure the service can keep officer numbers at current levels, as well as maintaining and modernising its estate.

“Officers and staff could of course do more if the UK Government paid back the £125 million VAT paid by Police Scotland before the Treasury reversed this unfair policy in 2018.”

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