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Warning over possible cuts to police officer numbers

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The number of police officers in Scotland could be cut next year, Chief Constable Iain Livingstone has told MSPs.

Mr Livingstone said reducing numbers this year would be "imprudent" given the "unprecedented demand" facing the force.

This includes Glasgow hosting the COP26 climate change summit in November.

However, Scotland's most senior police officer said a drop in officer numbers in future could be considered.

The comments come after the Scottish government agreed a deal to increase police spending by £60m in 2020-21.

Mr Livingstone told Holyrood's public audit committee the force would still have a deficit to contend with in the upcoming financial year despite the extra money from Scottish ministers.

The chief constable added: "We still don't truly know the consequences of the exit from the European Union", with the UK's Brexit transition period due to conclude at the end of this year.

After this he said the force "can start, if necessary and if appropriate, to reduce the number of police officers so we have got the right mix and through that achieve the financial sustainability that we all seek".

Iain Livingstone
Mr Livingstone said away from the focus on officer numbers, the force needed a "plan for the future that means we have got a workforce that has got the skills, the capacity and the profile to meet the challenges going forward"

Police Scotland currently has 17,234 officers and a draft plan to work out how many officers the force will need in the future.

Its much delayed workforce plan, due to be published later this year, is designed to ensure the force's resources match modern law enforcement requirements in areas such as technology and financial crime.

Planning for the future

David Crichton, vice-chairman of watchdog body the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), said: "The delay in preparing a workforce plan is unacceptable - there is no sugar-coating of that."

Mr Crichton stressed there was "insufficient funding" in the police budget to "fully fund 17,234 officers", giving rise to the force's continuing deficit.

He added: "Unless and until we have a better understanding of the future demands on policing, the areas for productivity improvement, the expected costs of policing and the right skills mix, that is the sort of thing a workforce plan will produce.

"It actually makes it very difficult without that."

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Susan Deacon spent two years as chairwoman of the SAP before quitting last December, claiming there was "little more" she could do to make the governance and accountability of policing work effectively

The public audit committee also heard from Susan Deacon, who resigned as chairwoman of the SPA last year, saying the system of police accountability was "fundamentally flawed".

Ms Deacon claimed her concerns, and those raised by Audit Scotland, were not being properly addressed.

She said: "I think that government and the SPA both have been overly reassuring and I think really quite disingenuous about the extent of some of the issues and the lack of clarity in the system.

"And I think it did speak volumes that there was so little response to the very considered and rounded view that the auditor general expressed on this."