Police could have to axe 1,000 officers in cash crisis
MORE than 1,000 officers could face the axe as a result of a major cash crisis set to engulf the single police force.
Chief Constable Iain Livingstone said trying to balance the books was made harder by ‘acute’ demands such as Brexit.
And without additional Scottish Government funding, he said 350 officers would have to be cut, piling pressure on frontline policing.
But the Scottish Police Federation (SPF) said the risk was greater as 400 officers are currently in place because of extra funding for Brexit, which will end after the UK leaves the EU.
A further 300 officers are also funded by local authorities, which means they could be in jeopardy as town halls come under pressure to cut spending – meaning more than 1,000 jobs are at risk.
The warning comes after Community Safety Minister Ash Denham earlier this month hailed figures showing the number of officers had risen by more than 1,000 since 2007.
Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘These are pretty dire warnings from Police Scotland. Police officers are already over-stretched and morale is at rock bottom so further cuts are bad news for the force and the public.
‘Given the SNP has decided that more criminals will be given community sentences, it is more important than ever that our police force is well resourced.’
There are 17,259 officers but the chief constable said numbers may have to drop to ‘less than 16,500’.
Mr Livingstone told a meeting of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) in Stirling that policing was facing an ‘increasingly acute level of demand’.
He said there could be ‘mass deployments’ of officers over the next 18 to 24 months because of major public events such as a possible General Election.
Mr Livingstone said ‘the truth is that our current workforce numbers are not sustainable against the allocated budget we have’.
He said: ‘Our financial plans for this year and next… excluding the completely unforeseen demands of policing the consequences of Brexit, mean that to eliminate our deficit by March 2021, we would require to reduce officer numbers to less than 16,500.’
Mr Livingstone said: ‘The coming months will present acute and potentially unprecedented demands on policing.
‘The implications of Brexit remain uncertain; there is potential for disruption around Scottish sea and airports, leading to delay for people and goods, and wider challenges across the UK, leading to “mutual aid” requests [requests for Scottish officers to be loaned to other forces].
‘There remains further dynamic in political circumstances which may indeed include further elections or potential referendums.’
He said there would be added pressure if, as expected, Glasgow hosts a climate change conference next year, with 200 world leaders and 30,000 delegates.
Mr Livingstone said Scotland could benefit from ‘Barnett consequentials’ – the share we receive from English spending commitments – because of plans by the UK Government to hire 20,000 more officers.
But he said it would be up to Scottish ministers to decide where this cash was spent. Police, he said, would have three options – maintaining the workforce with no increase in funding; reducing the workforce to eliminate the deficit; or securing additional funding. Echoing Mr Livingstone’s warnings, SPA chairman Professor Susan Deacon said the authority would launch ‘formal’ talks with ministers over extra cash.
But in a sign of the funding battle to come, she warned that governments of all political hues can have a ‘tendency to want to have their cake and eat it’.
Scottish Police Federation general secretary Calum Steele said it would be ‘preposterous for a government that has dined out on taking a different approach to England and Wales’, where police numbers had been slashed, to preside over further cuts.
A Scottish Government spokesman said it had provided £17million of Brexit-related funding to Police Scotland, and is ‘continuing to engage closely with the SPA and Police Scotland to support them in keeping people safe’.
‘Pretty dire warnings’