Police facing cash crisis over £900m cutbacks
POLICE Scotland has had nearly £900million of cuts since 2013.
Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said it was on track for projected savings of £1.1billion in the next decade.
But progress in cutting budgets has been faster than expected, with £800million already cut.
The disclosure comes amid concern from rank-and-file officers that the pace of cuts has left the force struggling.
There have been claims from officers of police vehicles held together with duct tape – and investigations into drug-dealers shelved to save overtime costs.
Giving evidence to the Scottish parliament’s justice sub-committee on policing, Mr Matheson said there had been savings of £880million over the past three years because police had ‘gone over some of the targets’.
But he was unable to guarantee funding to plug a financial black hole in the budget of £27.5million.
Scottish Tory chief whip John Lamont said: ‘When Police Scotland was formed, we were told the reason was to save money without frontline services being hit.
‘Michael Matheson may well want to brag about the savings made. What he didn’t mention was poor public satisfaction, question marks over the SNP’s crime figures and low rates of crime-solving.’
A special sum of £55million of Scottish Government cash was allocated to police this year in ‘reform funding’ – but this may not be available next year.
Together with the black hole of nearly £27.5million, this could lead to an overall deficit of more than £80million next year.
Mr Matheson said MSPs would have to wait until next week’s Scottish Budget to find out if ‘reform funding’ would be continued.
But he accused the UK Treasury of discriminating against Police Scotland by preventing it recovering VAT charges. He told MSPs: ‘The likely cost of irrecoverable VAT over the lifetime of the new emergency services mobile communication system for Police Scotland is likely to be £64.7million.’
Scottish Tory justice spokesman Margaret Mitchell said the Scottish Government had ‘rejected proposals from the Treasury to channel funding for Police Scotland through local authorities – and had it done that, it wouldn’t have had any liability for VAT’.
The Scottish Government has pledged to protect Police Scotland’s day-to-day budget in real terms over this parliament.
Scottish Lib Dem justice spokesman Liam McArthur said: ‘This still appears to be inadequate, with the suggestion from the force in October that the overspend was as high as £27million.’
He challenged Mr Matheson on policing in future, suggesting the force was ‘going to take a bit of a hatchet’ to staffing levels.
Mr Matheson said that was ‘completely wrong’, adding: ‘It is important for a service such as the police to have a clear sense of direction about where it is going to head over the next ten years and the way it is going to deliver its services.’
But he admitted he could not rule out a reduction in the number of officers in future or pre-empt next week’s Budget.
Public services union Unison, representing police civilian workers, said it was recommending its members reject a ‘miserly’ 1 per cent pay offer from the Scottish Police Authority (SPA).
Branch secretary George McIrvine said: ‘Our members are not being paid appropriately for the work they do.’
SPA chief executive John Foley said: ‘We are aiming to apply the maximum available increase.’
IN 2013, Sir Stephen House said the single police force had a ‘unique opportunity to become truly world-class’.
Sir Stephen quit as Chief Constable last year, leaving behind him a service that is far from ‘world-class’ – while the ‘new era’ he envisaged for policing has proved a disaster.
During the past three tumultuous years, there have been nearly £900million of ‘savings’ as a result of the unification of the eight territorial forces.
Indeed, savings have exceeded targets, Justice Secretary Michael Matheson boasted yesterday – and are on course to exceed £1billion over the next decade.
Yet rank-and-file officers warn of police cars held together with duct tape – even the rationing of bin-liners to save cash.
The old system of regional forces did lead to unnecessary costs and duplication – and there is no doubt savings had to be made. But the scale and pace of these cuts are truly disturbing.
Mr Matheson and his cohorts like to blame their eternal bogeyman – Westminster – for this sorry state of affairs.
But they are fully aware that responsibility for taking the axe to one of our most prized public services lies solely with the SNP – and now the public are paying the price.