More than 300 officers standing by for handling post-brexit incidents

Police Scotland has confirmed plans to put 360 officers on standby to deal with incidents that may arise because of Brexit.

The UK is due to leave the EU on Friday March 29 and the force hopes to have the officers available from mid-march.

They would deal with any incidents related to the potential impact of Brexit, such as protests and disruption at ports, and would also be available to deployed elsewhere in Britain on a mutual aid basis.

Deputy chief constable Will Kerr was briefing members of the Scottish Police Authority 0 Iain Livingstone: Plans for cuts have been dropped

(SPA) at a meeting in Glasgow yesterday, with planning based on identifying “reasonable worst case scenarios” in the possible event of a no-deal Brexit.

He said: “This is purely a contingency at this stage and part of our planning to allow us to give officers the required notice about changes to their shifts under police regulations. These officers will be deployed to local policing duties when not required for policing purposes related to Brexit.

Officers will be drawn from local and national divisions and from back office functions, with a control centre being set up in a Police Scotland control room at Bilston Glen, Midlothian.

At an SPA board meeting in Kilmarnock last week, chief constable Iain Livingstone confirmed previous plans to cut 300 officers from the force had been dropped.