Breaking of Covid rules is on rise: Police

Non-compliance with Covid regulations, particularly indoor gatherings, is on the rise, the head of the Scottish Police Federation (SPF) said.

General secretary Calum Steele said more complaints were being made against people who “have had enough” of the restrictions.

But he does not believe people in cities are more likely to break the rules.

After a question from Labour MSP Alex Rowley at the Covid-19 Committee yesterday, Mr Steele said: “I think to some extent we’re probably talking about house parties largely... but it actually reaches across the length and breadth of the country.

“There is an increase in general noncompliance with those specific restrictions.

“Those examples of non-compliance are increasing among a relatively small proportion of the population who have just decided that they’ve had enough and they no longer intend to play by the rules.”

Mr Rowley quoted a recent 12% spike in complaints to police in Dundee, compared to last year, while the same figure in Perth and Kinross dropped 11.8% alongside a 14.6% drop in Angus.

Mr Steele said: “I’m not sure that’s an urban versus rural problem.

“I think there’s an inevitability that, by virtue of an appreciation that there are more police officers in our urban centres rather than our rural locations, that there is probably a greater expectation in our cities that if the public phone the police to attend to gatherings... the police will be there and probably more of a grudging acceptance that there’s probably no point in phoning the police in some of the more rural areas, because by the time they get there the whole thing will be finished.”