Justice Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Official Report 653KB pdf

Justice Sub-Committee on Policing

Item 3 is feedback from the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing on its meeting of 3 October 2019. I refer members to paper J/S5/19/25/4, which the clerk produced. Following the verbal report, there will be an opportunity for members to make brief comments or ask questions. I invite John Finnie to provide the feedback.

Thank you, convener. As you said, there is detailed feedback in the paper on the sub-committee’s most recent meeting, on 3 October, when it took evidence from the Cabinet Secretary for Justice on capital funding for the police service. That was the committee’s final session on pre-budget scrutiny of the 2020-21 draft budget.

The cabinet secretary was asked about the claims by the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland that the level of capital funding means that they are struggling to keep the estate, the fleet and information and communications technology working. Both organisations have described the situation as “not sustainable”.

The cabinet secretary said that, although he did not recognise the description of the police estate, he was listening to the views of Police Scotland and the SPA. He added that he had acted previously in response to their concerns about insufficient capital funding.

The cabinet secretary confirmed that there is an expectation from the Scottish Government that police officer numbers will not be significantly reduced below the number that it inherited in 2007.

In response to questions on Brexit preparation costs, the cabinet secretary said that if policing costs are greater than anticipated, as a result of a Brexit deal or no deal, he will request additional funding from the UK Government to meet the costs.

A recurring issue is the lack of engagement by the SPA and Police Scotland with the police staff associations and unions to inform budget decisions. The cabinet secretary indicated that he expects the police unions and staff associations to be fully involved in budget discussions. He asked the SPA and Police Scotland to reflect on their approach.

The cabinet secretary confirmed that it is unlikely that Police Scotland will meet its deficit reduction plan. He added that if Police Scotland and the SPA want to revisit the plan, he will be willing to have that discussion.

Finally, the sub-committee agreed to undertake an inquiry into how policing in Scotland makes use of facial recognition technology and to schedule an evidence session on Police Scotland’s custody provision at its next meeting, which will be on Thursday 7 November.

I am happy to take questions.

Thank you. If members have no comments or questions, is the committee content to note the paper?

Members indicated agreement.

That concludes the public part of the meeting. Our next meeting will take place on Tuesday 29 October, when we will take more evidence on the Scottish Biometrics Commissioner Bill and on Scottish statutory instruments that will introduce a victims surcharge fund.