Majority of officers and staff against BTP merger

Opposition parties have called on the Scottish Government to scrap a controversial policing merger after it emerged more than 80 per cent of officers and staff are opposed to it.

Research published yesterday by the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research found 83 per cent of British Transport Police (BTP) employees are either “quite or very unsupportive” of plans to integrate the force into Police Scotland.

The findings come the day after the Scottish Government announced that the integration will not take place in April 2019 as planned. Police Scotland said “unresolved issues” meant that integration cannot be completed by thedeadline“withoutcompromising public safety”.

Conservative MSP Liam Kerr said the Scottish Government had been forced into an “embarrassing, humiliating U-turn”.

“Given that we now know that eight in ten BTP officers and staff oppose the merger outright, will they [ministers] listen to them and consider calling the whole thing off?” he said.

Liberal Democrat MSP Liam Mcarthur said the joint programme board overseeing integration had been “handed a poisoned chalice”, adding the “politically-driven merger should not go ahead until a proper business case has been published, scrutinised and approved by this parliament”.

Labour’s Daniel Johnson also called on the government to “listen to those voices of frontline officers” and halt the merger.