Police hit by £1m payout bill... to their own off icers
SCOTLAND’S cash-strapped police force has paid out more than £1 million in compensation after officers and staff were injured by crashes, needles, slips, dogs and horses.
Dozens of police employees have been awarded payouts in claims that include bullying, breach of contract, sexual harassment and stress.
The cost to the taxpayer of payouts by Police Scotland is likely to increase dramatically as fewer than a third of the requests submitted since the country’s eight forces merged have been settled.
New figures show that the force has set aside £6 million to cover compensation claims.
Last night opposition politicians and campaigners raised concerns over the scale of the issue, at a time when the force faces a £21.1 million black hole in its finances.
Since its formation in April 2013, Police Scotland has received 74 compensation claims from officers and 21 from members of staff.
Of those, 28 have so far been settled at a total cost of £1.1 million, including legal and other charges.
Scottish Tory justice spokesman Douglas Ross said: ‘The fact that there is such a high level of compensation claims must raise serious concern with the single police force.
‘The fact that so many officers feel they have a grievance against their
‘Shows low level of morale in service’
work shows the low level of morale within the service at present.
‘With so many cuts to police frontline services, all claims must be assessed to guarantee to the public that these claims are valid.’
The biggest category of cases – 16 – relates to injuries sustained while on duty or as part of training, while slips and trips accounted for 13 of the requests made.
Dog injuries were said to be the reason for four claims and nine were due to road accidents.
Other injuries were said to be sustained in incidents involving bikes, horses, needles or prisoners and at least one claim was made for psychological harm incurred on duty.
The figures, disclosed in a Freedom of Information response, also showed a number of submissions related to bullying or harassment – including sexual – breach of contract, lost earnings, stress at work, sex or disability discrimination and even wrongful arrest.
The response stated that the amount ring-fenced for legal provisions as at March 31 this year was £6,325,000.
TaxpayerScotland director Eben Wilson fears the 67 outstanding cases could trigger a raft of settlements in the months to come.
He said: ‘These payments are typical of the overheads that large, nationalised organisations accrue very quickly.
‘This ill-advised integration of our police is clearly generating its very own compensation culture at great cost to taxpayers.
‘With so many cases still awaiting adjudication we can only look forward to a lot more of our tax payments going to costs that do nothing to improve police performance.’
However, Scottish Police Federation chairman Brian Docherty said officers are not steeped in a ‘compensation culture’ and described the payouts as an ‘unfortunate’ inevitability in a sizeable workforce.
He added: ‘Like every other large employer the police will have claims of this nature. Policing is a stressful occupation because of what you face on a day-to-day basis.’
Papers from the Scottish Police Authority – the public watchdog for Police Scotland – showed last week that, despite identifying £5 million of cuts, the force is forecast to have a £21.1 million overspend in 2016-17.
A force spokesman said Police Scotland was a large organisation with around 23,000 personnel and an annual budget of £1.1 billion.
He added: ‘The number of claims is, per officer or staff member, very low indeed. Police Scotland has a staff well-being scheme to ensure full support is available to staff.’