Police funds suffer ‘overzealous’ cuts

Ex-chief claims civil servants will slash budget by £2bn

SCOTLAND’S police force has been cut to the bone by ‘overzealous civil servants’, a former chief has claimed.

Former deputy chief constable Tom Wood said that the Scottish Government had got carried away with its efforts to save money.

Eight regional f orces were merged in 2013 to form Police Scotland with the intention of saving £1billion by 2026.

But Mr Wood said an estimated £2billion would be slashed from the budget and that the force was feeling the pinch.

Officers are being stretched even further by the coronavirus pandemic, a surge in cyber crime and preparations for the UN climate change conference being held in Glasgow in November, he added.

The Scottish Government refuted the claims and said the spend on policing had increased.

Mr Wood said: ‘ The problem is rooted way back in the 2013 formation of Police Scotland. One of the drivers of that reform was cost savings. It was planned to strip out over £1billion from the overall budget by 2026. Bad enough.

‘But over the first seven years of this plan, our civil servants have been overzealous. On the current trajectory, by 2026, the overall police budget will have been reduced by over £2billion.’

In The Scotsman, he wrote: ‘ Operational i ndependence is central to our policing model. But as i t stands Police Scotland cannot live within its budget.

‘This year there will be a deficit of £44million and to cover this overspend requires an annual “cap in hand” visit to St Andrew’s House. It is not a situation conducive to long-term planning or true independence.

‘We rightly expect much of our police service and when they fail they must be held to account.

‘But in return they deserve a workable financial settlement that allows them to do their duty without fear or favour.’

Last month Audit Scotland warned cuts in officer numbers were needed to curb rising costs at the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), which funds Police Scotland and controls its governance.

Plans agreed in 2018 to cut 750 officer posts were put on hold due to the potential for a no- deal Brexit at a cost of £17million for 2019/20. Overall, the financial difficulties for the authority saw it overspend by £ 26.6million in 2019/20, with £32.9million provided by the Government to cover cashflow requirements.

This was worsened by a £15million financial black hole caused by understating the impact of the pandemic, with £2.2million of additional costs attributed to coronavirus in March 2020 alone.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: ‘Scotland is well served by its police service, whose key role in keeping communities safe has been integral in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite constraints on Scotland’s public services through a decade of UK austerity, our investment in policing this year increased by £60million to more than £1.2billion.

‘We have also given the SPA an additional £8.2million to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 on the policing budget.’

He added: ‘ Future policing requirements will be considered as part of the budget process.

‘We will continue to work closely with Police Scotland to consider options to address the challenge of financial sustainability.’