Justice Committee [Draft]

Meeting date: Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Official Report 590KB pdf

Justice Sub-Committee on Policing (Report Back)

Agenda item 3 is feedback from the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing on its meeting of 20 February.

I refer members to paper 4, which is a note by the clerk.

The sub-committee met on 20 February, when it heard from the Cabinet Secretary for Justice on the Scottish Government’s draft 2020-21 policing budget.

The sub-committee received written evidence from the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, the Scottish Police Federation, Unison, the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland, who all raised concerns about the proposed police budget for the next financial year. They are concerned that the proposed settlement will fail to provide the necessary investment in the police service’s estate, information and communications technology, and fleet.

Police Scotland indicated that the settlement would mean that no new change improvement activity would be possible in 2020-21.

The sub-committee raised those concerns with the cabinet secretary, who told the sub-committee that he understood that Police Scotland faces financial challenges and that it would therefore be necessary for it to prioritise the areas on which it spends its budget. He acknowledged concerns about the police estate and indicated that the proposed budget made it possible to address maintenance issues.

The cabinet secretary also acknowledged that the budget would mean that the police service might have to reconsider the timescales for implementing its ICT strategy.

In relation to the budget for the fleet, the cabinet secretary indicated that he expected the additional £5 million to be spent on vehicles that are about to come to the end of their working lives.

The sub-committee was pleased to hear that the United Kingdom Government has agreed, in principle, to pay all costs for policing the United Nations 26th climate change conference of the parties—COP26—which is to be held in Glasgow in November. The sub-committee will consider police planning for COP26 at its next meeting, on 12 March, when it will hear from Police Scotland.

We have a Parliament debate on police funding tomorrow, so many of those issues will be looked at then.

That concludes the public part of today’s meeting. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 3 March, when we will consider key issues for our stage 1 report on the Children (Scotland) Bill.