Scottish Budget will allow Police Scotland to ‘restart officer recruitment’

Chief Constable Jo Farrell said it will also fund the cost of this year’s seven per cent pay award for officers and staff and make a “credible pay offer” in 2024/25.

“A pension rebate in the region of £17 million next year will support us to progress a programme of voluntary retirement and redundancy,” she added.

“Our capital allocation was enhanced by £13 million – a welcome improvement, although our capital allocation has been a challenge over a number of years and remains low compared to other police services in the UK.”

The Scottish government said the budget allocation for policing will support frontline services and key priorities such as body-worn cameras.

In a statement to the Scottish Parliament, Deputy First Minister Shona Robison said the safety and security of the public was “one of the most important duties of any government”.

“That is why we will invest £1.55 billion in policing in 2024/25,” she said, “increasing the Scottish Police Authority resource budget by 5.6 per cent – an additional £75.7 million, a real terms increase for Police Scotland. Providing the resources needed to support frontline service delivery.

“We are also increasing the police core capital funding by 12.4 per cent to £64.5 million, for investment in the police estate, technology and fleet.”

Ms Robison added: “We do not believe that those people who are the backbone of our public service – our teachers, our police officers, our nurses – should see their tax rate increase.

“Taking the police as an example, constables, sergeants, inspectors and even chief inspectors will not see their tax rate rise.”

Outlining her response to the Budget during an evidence session at the Scottish Parliament’s Criminal Justice Committee on Wednesday (December 20), Ms Farrell said: “Yesterday’s welcome budget announcement provided an overall £104 million uplift over and above flat cash funding for policing.

“I recognise policing has been allocated the majority of a £128 million ask, when not all asks could be met and some budgets are being cut.

“The allocation is, I believe, important recognition of Police Scotland’s value and the contribution policing makes to Scotland being a safe place to live and work with historically low levels of crime.

“I believe passionately in the value that policing brings to our communities: keeping people safe from harm, protecting the vulnerable, bringing criminals to justice, solving problems, and reducing offending. We stand up for, and with our communities, which strengthens them, improves their wellbeing and allows them to prosper.

“I have placed trust, confidence and performance at the top of our agenda. I want us to be highly trusted by the people we serve.

“Our frontline officers, both in response teams and less visible specialist roles, work tirelessly to keep people safe: responding to calls for help, taking drug dealers and organised crime gangs off the streets, and securing justice for victims and their families.

“I want us to be willing to challenge ourselves so that we continually improve; and to be high performing. It is vital we continue to build on the cultural progress which has been made in recent years through investment in leadership and a focus on our values and standards driven through our Policing Together Programme.”

Ms Farrell added: “As chief constable, my operational focus is in three areas – first, addressing threat, harm, and risk; second, prevention, problem solving and proactivity; and third looking after the wellbeing of officers and staff so they can deliver for the public.

“I welcome the budget announcement. The improvement on flat cash is recognition of our track record on reforming to maintain capacity and improve service while returning savings to the public purse.

“More broadly, it is clear from my early observations since becoming chief constable, that year-to-year budgeting makes it more difficult to effectively plan and deliver change, for example projecting recruitment needs or coordinating and prioritising the introduction of new technologies.

“This cumulative effect slows our ability to transform and give our officers and staff the tools a modern police service needs to keep people safe as efficiently and effectively as possible.

“Body-worn video is an example of a complex project which required IT infrastructure to support storage of footage and data security. To get the maximum benefits we needed a national crime system and partners had to be ready to take evidence right through the criminal justice process.

“We are moving at pace and I expect roll-out of body-worn video to frontline officers and staff in the summer.

“That demonstrates policing’s commitment to playing our part in necessary progress across the entire criminal justice system. I have been meeting with key partners and I believe there is a shared recognition that innovation and improvement must be prioritised and accelerated to support better and quicker court outcomes for victims and to provide efficiency and value for the public.”

Ms Farrell said the overtime cost of officers being cited for court – with very few of them being called to give evidence – is £3 million.

“This not a sustainable position financially, or operationally,” she said. “We must reduce cancelled rest days and leave and increase the time officers can spend in communities.

“The Summary Case Management pilot, of which we are a partner, aims to improve the summary court process by resolving cases at the earliest opportunity and we are already seeing the benefits, and interim evaluation is very positive.

“Targeting domestic abuse cases reduces trauma for victims and witnesses and allows for a significant reduction in citations, including police and other witnesses.

“Another clear challenge is that policing must reset the parameters of our role in responding to people living with poor mental health. Each year, officers deploy to well over 100,000 mental health related incidents – the equivalent work of between 500 and 600 full time officers. In over 87 per cent of these incidents no crime has taken place.

“Resetting those parameters will help ensure the most appropriate help is provided and allow officers to return to preventing crime and responding to threat, harm and risk as soon as possible after the moment of crisis has passed and public safety is assured.”

Although welcoming the “important uplift” in Police Scotland’s budget, Ms Farrell said: “A changing, ageing population; a cost-of-living crisis driving vulnerability and pressure on other services; civil unrest; new laws and increasingly complex investigations all contribute to growing community need and increasing contacts to policing from the public.

“The acute pressure on public finances will continue to bring urgency to the important principle that Police Scotland must be as efficient and provide as much value to the public as is possible.

“Police Scotland must focus intensely on our core duties and what matters to the people we serve. If what we do doesn’t protect the vulnerable from harm, prevent crime or support our officers and staff, we will challenge that and redirect resources to prioritise the front line.

“This work will allow us to develop a new operating model to live within projected funding while maintaining service to the public by prioritising the front line, removing back-office duplication, and creating capacity to deal with new and increasing threats in the online space.

“I have directed that we approach change differently – bringing together key experts from different functions across the service to deliver change with agility and at speed.

“Ensuring Scotland continues to be a safe place to live and work is my commitment and priority as chief constable.”

Chair of the Scottish Police Authority, Martyn Evans, said: “The budget proposes a total uplift of £87.6 million in 2024/25 for policing. This represents a significant improvement on the flat cash settlement indicated and in the context of the cuts being felt by other public services we welcome this additional funding for policing.

“The need for a step-change in investment to transform and improve policing remains. While today’s settlement is welcome, it does not fully address the challenge for this second phase of police reform. The need to develop a new and sustainable model for policing is a priority for policing in the year ahead.”

Scottish Police Federation general secretary David Kennedy said: “The recent Police budget announcement is encouraging and will allow Police Scotland to start recruiting more police officers and finally provide police officers with body-worn cameras.

“However, there is still a long way to go to make up the billions of pounds that have historically been stripped from the budget. Continual proper financial investment is needed to make policing the priority that it should be.

“The police establishment is still too small to cope with the demand and any success is squarely down to the hard work and commitment of the police officers and staff who protect Scotland 24/7, 365 days of the year. “