Force spends £5m on cover for staff axed to slash costs

POLICE Scotland have spent almost £5million on agency staff in just two years.

They have filled 294 vacancies with temporary cover since April 2013, despite making thousands of workers redundant in recent years.

Last night politicians said the revelation was insulting to people who had lost their jobs, adding it would do little for staff morale.

Graeme Pearson, Scottish Labour’s shadow justice spokesman, said: ‘When police are complaining about budgets and 2,500 staff have been made “voluntarily” redundant, the payment of £5million to agency staff will be a further insult.

‘The police service runs on the goodwill of its staff, often doing impossible tasks against the pressure of public demands.

‘To think that loyal staff members have been let go whilst police officers and agency staff do their essential work is poor management and bad f or morale.’

In 2013/2014 Police Scotland spent £1,750,874 on agency staff, which almost doubled to £3,226,372 the following year.

Many of the vacancies were administrative or office roles. Agency staff are not currently being used in call centres, but the force did not state if this was always the case.

A Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘Agency staff represent a very small proportion of the overall workforce.’