Police fear shortage of cash to pay wages
SCOTLAND’S crisis-hit police force may not be able to pay the wages of its officers within months, a union boss has claimed.
Scottish Police Federation boss Calum Steele yesterday claimed that Police Scotland would run out of money by February – and revealed senior officers were swamped with serious and sensitive cases due to cost cuts.
But Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf hit back, branding the suggestion ‘outrageous’ and ‘untrue’.
He offered to resign if officers were not paid in February – and urged Mr Steele to do the same if he were proven wrong.
However, Mr Yousaf was forced to concede that Police Scotland’s finances were running low and that other measures may be needed to secure the payment of staff.
The pair went head to head on the state of Scotland’s struggling single force at a fringe event at the SNP’s annual autumn conference in Aberdeen.
In an angry exchange, Mr Steele said: ‘Unless there is a fundamental change to the funding that is provided to the police service in Scotland, we risk losing up to 1,000 officers next year. That’s the reality.’
He said the Chief Constable had been clear that the funding challenge facing the police meant 750 officers had to be cut, ‘and that’s before the doubt over an additional 300 officers that are currently funded by local authorities’.
Mr Steele added: ‘At this point in time, the police service of Scotland is going to run out of money and not be able to pay wages in February.’
Mr Yousaf insisted the claims that officers would not be paid were ‘untrue’.
He admitted that Police Scotland currently operated with a deficit, and said that the Scottish Police Authority had a financial plan to cut it to zero.
But he added: ‘Because of Brexit in particular [the police] have had to increase the number of officers. (The Scottish Government has) committed to £17million to cover that cost. It is clear that that deficit plan has to be revised.’
A Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘As in previous years where policing has operated with a forecasted deficit, we will work with the Scottish Government to meet required expenditure.’
‘Going to run out of money’