Police Scotland scrap plan to recruit 200 new officers

Police Scotland has cancelled plans to take on 200 new recruits in January as it tries to save money in the face of a £19m projected overspend.

The force is also redeploying staff from the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan, Fife, to back up frontline officers during the busy Christmas and New Year period.

All college training between December and January has been called off.

A senior officer said "hard choices" had to be made due to budget pressures.

But the Scottish Police Federation (SPF), which represents rank and file officers, described the decision as "shocking".

No offers to candidates for the postponed intake of probationers - which was scheduled for 8 January - had yet been made and force confirmed the application process would continue for 2024.

It has already been required to reduce the budgeted officer number this year from 17,234 to 16,600.

Deputy Chief Constable designate Fiona Taylor said: "I have been clear that we will continue to communicate about the hard choices being taken to maintain effective policing within the funding available."

Last month, she told a Scottish Police Authority (SPA) board meeting that the force had been "closely assessing" officer recruitment for 2023/24.

That process has now resulted in the first planned recruitment of officers for 2024 being scrapped.

Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs told BBC Scotland News that the force was looking at a range of measures to get the budget "back on track" over the course of the financial year.

He said: "Pausing the intake in January will go some way towards achieving that."

Mr Speirs added that the force was committed to serving communities and maintaining its level of 16,600 officers.

In recent months it has had to contend with a number of financial challenges including soaring inflation, rising energy costs and increased spending on overtime.

David Kennedy, general secretary of the SPF, said the decision would put its members under greater pressure.

He added: "The announcement by Police Scotland that no recruitment will take place until April 2024 is shocking.

"We expect a larger than normal number to retire in the last quarter of this year because of changes to the pension scheme, so we are likely to see hundreds of officers less than we have now."

Mr Kennedy warned that the national force was almost 1,000 officers down on 2013, the year it replaced the old eight-force model.

He said: "It is no exaggeration to say we are facing a public safety crisis.

"The Scottish government simply has to find more money for policing, and do it now."

First Minister Humza Yousaf said the force had been funded "fairly" with an additional £80m for 2023/24 - an increase of 6.3%.

He added: "Our police officers remain better paid than police officers in every rank in England or indeed in Wales."

A Scottish government spokesperson said: "While this decision is an operational matter for the chief constable, we note that this is for a short time and allows police to focus their resources during a busy period and to ensure the recruitment standard is of the level they expect."

The spokesperson added that there were over 350 more police officers than in 2007 and around 1,480 new recruits had joined the force since the beginning of 2022.

Police Scotland had already paused police support staff recruitment, except for some "business-critical areas" such as contact centres and custody suites.

The force is also reviewing its senior officer command structures and support services.

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

The SPA meeting heard that finances had worsened - despite recent efforts to cut back on expenditure such as overtime costs.

Since 2013 Police Scotland has earned more than £28m from nearly 100 sales of former stations and other properties.