Chamber and committees

Can someone get back to me on whether you will explore allowing Police Scotland to carry forward reserves? All eight of the previous forces could do that; it was not a big deal. I do not know whether an error was made at the time in not allowing the single police force to carry forward reserves.

Can you give a timescale for that?

Morning, everyone. I want to ask about policing. Cabinet secretary, you will be broadly familiar with the centralisation of the eight regional police forces. That resulted in many efficiencies, and £1 billion has been saved over the period since then and been returned to the Scottish budget, if you like. That is not an insignificant amount, and I will come back to that.

Prior to centralisation, the eight regional forces could carry reserves. However, for some reason, the ability to do that was not carried over into Police Scotland. I know that the current chief constable has raised the issue with you and previous justice secretaries. Perhaps Donald McGillivray might know more about the history of that. Have you explored that issue?

Are you open to the idea that things might be out of balance? People with machetes terrorising shop workers on Sauchiehall Street on Saturday nights is a regular occurrence. I am not picking a random case—that happens regularly. The local police cannot tell me whether a case has gone to the reporter or the fiscal. There seems to be a lack of transparency, so it is no wonder that the public have the perception that there are no consequences.

I am told that, as a matter of public policy—do not quote me, because I am not saying that this is correct, but when I have asked about it, I am told that this is the policy—a case where a machete was used would go to the fiscal, but if it was not used and, although the offender was terrorising people, they did not do anything with it, the case would not go to the fiscal. You do not need to respond to that—I am just saying that there is something wrong about that. Jimmy Paul of the Violence Reduction Unit said that there have been unintended consequences.

Sorry, but that is not my line of questioning. I agree with you on that; it has been really beneficial. However, do you acknowledge that the SPA has handed back £1 billion to the Government over the period since the reform?

I will cut to the chase. There will be discussions about public service reform. I want to know whether you can share with the committee what your view on the issue will be when you speak to Ivan McKee.

I can assure you that that is the figure: about £1 billion has been saved. You can correct me if I am wrong. It is good that there have been savings. However, some would argue that there is not much left to scrape from the barrel if you are looking to make further savings from Police Scotland. Will you acknowledge that?

I then want to ask about some of the things that you said in relation to modernisation and investment.

I would just like to have an answer on that at some point, if not today.

Three issues have been raised with you and your predecessor justice secretaries: borrowing, reserves and multiyear funding. I would like clarification on the issue of reserves at some point.

I think that the committee in general would be interested in that. I appreciate that—thank you.

The convener asked about custody suites, and I can confirm that what he said is the case. A good example is the Stewart Street police station in Glasgow. I was out with the police in Glasgow on Thursday afternoon, and I thank Police Scotland for hosting me. Following the closure of 300 cells, it now takes an inordinate amount of time to process a prisoner, so it seems like a no-brainer to consider an investment programme that would incorporate the opening up of more custody cells or the modernisation of existing ones.

From the answer that you gave to the convener, it sounded as though you were saying that we can ignore what is being said, because the chief constable has given you an assurance that people will continue to be arrested when that is needed. However, it seems obvious that that cannot be done unless more custody cells are provided.

So, additional custody capacity will be available.

My next question is about an issue that I am sure that you will know well from your previous role—that of mental health-related deployments. I will remind you of the figures. In 2025-26, 18 per cent of calls to the police related to mental health incidents, and the average time taken for officers to deal with such an incident was 5.34 hours. For that year alone, that equates to a cost of £34 million and 481 full-time equivalent officers being taken out of the system.

I do not know whether you listened to it, but the committee had an evidence session on the subject. I am not satisfied that enough progress has been made, and I hope that you are not satisfied, either. To be perfectly honest, I think that it is a scandal that, in 2026, given the figures that I have cited and all the pressures on policing, which we are all aware of as MSPs and in our individual roles, the health service can sit back and let the police get on with it, because no one seems to have any authority to push for progress to be made on the issue.