Justice Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Official Report 612KB pdf

Justice Sub-Committee on Policing (Report Back)

Agenda item 5 is feedback from the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing’s meeting on 31 January. Following John Finnie’s verbal report, there will be an opportunity for members to make brief comments or to ask questions. I refer members to paper 6, which is a note by the clerk.

I invite John Finnie to provide feedback from the meeting in question.

As paper 6 is quite a detailed paper that is in the public domain, I will summarise some of the points that it makes about the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing’s meeting on 31 January, at which we considered Police Scotland’s draft budget for 2019-20 and the chief constable’s priorities for the coming year.

The chief constable told us about the preparations that Police Scotland is making in relation to Brexit. On officer numbers, the significant point to note is that the force is delaying the reduction of 300 officers that it had intended to make as part of the efficiency savings process. In addition, it has accelerated the recruitment of 100 new officers. Therefore, it will have 400 officers available to support its response to any Brexit-related situations, including those that arise elsewhere in the United Kingdom, given that there are reciprocal arrangements in place with other forces. We heard that Brexit presents the biggest short-term demand that Police Scotland faces, not least because of the uncertainty that exists.

Specific longer-term risks associated with Brexit include the loss of access to European Union-wide mechanisms such as Europol, Eurojust and the European arrest warrant, but the chief constable said that work is already under way to build bilateral arrangements with other countries.

We talked about the information and communications technology strategy. On cyberkiosks, the chief constable acknowledged that the organisation had not gone about the process properly. We were told that the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service’s advice to Police Scotland on the legal basis on which cyberkiosks can be used had come in on the morning of our meeting. That information is not yet available, but it will be shared with the sub-committee. We received an assurance that the roll-out of cyberkiosks would not take place unless there was absolute certainty about the legal basis for it.

A number of questions were asked about the capital budget, which was felt to be inadequate, given that it equates to only 40 to 50 per cent of what a force of Police Scotland’s size would anticipate receiving by way of capital investment. It was felt that, without additional capital, the force would not be able to realise the full revenue benefits of its strategy and that there would be challenges for the fleet and the estate, which would become acute.

We heard that the VAT money is now mainstreamed into Police Scotland’s budget. The other issue that was discussed in some detail was that of the community police officers who are funded by local authorities, of whom there are about 145. The chief constable stated that he had an ethical duty to ensure that they continued to undertake the community policing functions that local authorities fund them for, but that there would be a challenge if that funding were removed.

I am happy to take any questions.

Do members have any questions or comments?

The sub-committee had a very good evidence session with the chief constable. We are all pleased that a huge volume of mobile devices are being used for front-line policing, but concerns still exist about the slow progress that is being made on the funding of the IT system, which is a tool that the police need, and on the deficit in relation to the fleet and the estate, which needs to be addressed. Nonetheless, it was a worthwhile and encouraging session.

Before we move into private, I would like to record Liam McArthur’s apologies, which were submitted after all.

That concludes the public part of today’s meeting. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 19 February, when we will continue our consideration of our draft report on our post-legislative scrutiny of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012.