Police Scotland to sell 30 more buildings in £19m budget warning

Police Scotland is preparing to sell off 30 more of its properties, after warnings that force spending could go £19m over budget.

The Scottish Police Authority heard that finances has worsened - despite recent efforts to cut back on expenditure such as overtime costs.

Police Scotland earned more than £28m from nearly 100 sales of former stations and other property since 2013.

Deputy Chief Constable Fiona Taylor said the new sell off was "necessary".

"We understand community concerns around closing police buildings," she said.

"But it's important to underline that as we consolidate our estate, we now have over 60 co-locations with partners providing more sustainable, modern, safer workspaces for our people."

A written report to the police authority suggested that North Lanarkshire would be one area affected by the property sales.

Ms Taylor also set out other efforts to reduce costs.

"We are rigorously managing overtime spend," she said. "Very senior officers are scrutinising overtime costs and taking action to reduce spend.

"We are reviewing our senior officer command structures and we are reviewing our support services to ensure our structures are as lean as possible.

"We are taking action to build capacity and reduce demand so that we continue to respond to the public by prioritising issues which present the greatest threat."

Ms Taylor said one example of this ongoing work was a pilot project in North East Scotland where some minor crimes would no longer be investigated.

"The pilot will enable local officers to focus on crimes that have proportionate lines of inquiry and by so doing they can give more time to local priorities," she said.

Ms Taylor insisted that people should continue reporting crimes to Police Scotland as normal.