SNP accused of ‘cooking books’ over police pledge

SNP ministers and police chiefs were yesterday accused of ‘cooking the books’ to avoid breaking a Nationalist pledge on officer numbers.

Figures show Police Scotland’s officer numbers have repeatedly fallen below the 17,234 minimum target imposed by the Scottish Government.

But a flood of new recruits has been taken on days before the quarterly headcounts, which means the force manages narrowly to achieve the target.

The SNP has boasted of how it delivered on a 2007 pledge to recruit 1,000 extra officers – then kept numbers up at the higher level.

But ministers are understood to be open to scrapping the pledge next year, as Chief Constable Phil Gormley would prefer more flexibility to recruit specialists or backroom staff.

Yesterday, it emerged total numbers were below target for ten of the 13 weeks of the last quarter – but were boosted days before the headcount took place.

Scottish Lib Dem justice spokesman Liam McArthur said: ‘This was the SNP’s flagship justice pledge and concerns have been raised that the officer number pledge has put huge pressure on spending in other parts of the police budget. Now we learn that it seems police leadership have only been able to meet this commitment with a bit of creative accounting.

‘People would be forgiven for thinking Police Scotland have been caught red-handed cooking the books to spare the blushes of SNP ministers. If targets are being missed 99 per cent of the time, telling us that everything is fine on the basis of figures from a week or two is not credible.’

At one point last month, there were only 17,101 officers – 133 short of the target. But that was boosted back up to 17,255 by the end of September, when the quarterly headcount was due to take place.

A similar pattern happened in June, when numbers were up to 38 short of the target on several days of the month, before rising to 17,242 – eight ahead of the target.

Scottish Labour justice spokes- man Claire Baker said: ‘These are incredibly serious allegations. Justice Secretary Michael Matheson should be explaining this to parliament as a matter of urgency.

‘People are sick of statistics being spun when they see the reality in their own communities – a police

‘The worst type of target culture’

force facing huge cuts from the SNP Government in Edinburgh.

‘It would be completely unacceptable if official statistics have been manipulated to get the SNP out of jail on police cuts.’

Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said: ‘If there has been a sys- tematic cheating of the system to cover up SNP’s blushes, it is simply unacceptable.

‘It would be the very worst type of target culture, where the figures are fiddled because PR is deemed more important than the reality on the ground. The public deserves to know if officer numbers have been inflated in this way and, if so, at whose command.’

Last month, Mr Gormley said: ‘Judging a police service by the numbers of officers is a really incomplete and old-fashioned way of judging it.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘The quarterly figures show this Government has been delivering historically high levels of police officers, more than 1,000 above the number in March 2007. While weekly fluctuations are to be expected as staff leave and recruits start, the picture of sustained officer strength well above levels before 2007 – and in contrast to a nearly 13 per cent fall in officer numbers in England and Wales over the same period – is clear.’

A Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘We remain committed to maintaining officer numbers at the current level while we review demand, organisational profile and skills to shape a service that can deal with new and changing calls on resources.

‘Police officer numbers are formally reported quarterly and the returns to date confirm a quarterly strength above 17,234. There will be weekly fluctuations in numbers, but we continue to recruit.’