Under-funding of police resulting in youth riots, says MP

A Scottish Labour MP has demanded that community policing is properly funded to avoid youth riots in Edinburgh, as new figures claim Police Scotland is getting a financial “raw deal” from the Scottish Government.

Edinburgh South MP Ian Murray has written to Police Scotland raising concerns about the lack of community policing and engagement with young people in his constituency after a knife attack triggered a violent incident in Moredun last week.

He said a “long-term decline” in police numbers had contributed to the rioting and added: “There is no doubt that community policing has been hit the hardest by squeezed resources from the Scottish Government to Police Scotland. The rise in this type of antisocial behaviour is as a direct result of there not being the same networks of community police officers on the streets.”

Mr Murray’s comments came as Scottish Labour’s justice spokesman, Daniel Johnson, revealed that Police Scotland was fifth from bottom in a league table of 42 forces, for capital investment funding in 2017-18. The statistics show capital expenditure of £34.1 million for the force – £1,526 for each of Police Scotland’s 22,370 employees.

Police Scotland is second only to the Metropolitan Police in the UK for staff numbers, with a total of 39,733 people employed by the London force. But the Met has total capital expenditure of £431.4m – or £10,857 per employee.

Mr Johnson said: “These figures show that Police Scotland is getting a raw deal from the SNP on funding and lagging behind similarly-sized forces in other parts of the UK.”

However, a spokesperson for Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “The fact is that Police Scotland had the fourth highest total capital expenditure of all UK police forces in 2017-18. Our £1.2 billion funding for this year includes a 52 per cent increase in the capital budget.”

Responding to Mr Murray, Chief Superintendent Gareth Blair, Local Area Commander for Edinburgh, said: “I want to reassure communities across the Capital that tackling antisocial behaviour and disorder remains one of our top priorities. Every Local Area Commander for city regularly reviews where incidents of this nature are arising in their areas and dedicate suitable resources accordingly.”