Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that veterans have access to appropriate mental health support wherever they live in Scotland. This year, the Scottish Government provided funding of £658,000 to Veterans First Point to provide mental health and wellbeing support to veterans and their families. That funding is matched by national health service boards. Veterans First Point is also closely involved in work to implement the veterans mental health and wellbeing action plan, and it is represented on the veteran-led implementation board that was established by the Scottish Government, which is chaired by Dr Charles Winstanley.

Policing is, and will continue to be, a priority for the Government. The latest data, from 30 September, shows a higher number of officers in Scotland than there were in 31 March 2007. There are now 30 officers per 10,000 of the population, whereas there were 24 officers per 10,000 of the population in England and Wales on 31 March.

The chief constable has the flexibility to develop his workforce in a way that responds to challenges by ensuring the right workforce mix. Decisions about recruitment are for him to take within that broader context, and I am pleased to note that Police Scotland welcomed around 900 new recruits this year.

I am not sure what the hilarity is about. The Scottish Government has serious concerns about the appalling human rights situation in China, particularly in Xinjiang, and we will continue to raise those concerns directly with the Chinese Government. We are clear eyed about all its international engagement and keep all our policies under review.

We welcome and support co-ordinated international action to address the serious issue of human rights violations, such as the action taken by the UK Government to help to ensure that UK businesses and the public sector are not complicit in human rights violations in Xinjiang province and in China more generally.

Neil Bibby will have heard me say in my original answer that that is a matter for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, which is independent of Government. If jurors do not normally employ a childminder or other child carer for the period of their jury duty, they may submit a claim to SCTS to recover those costs. If they normally employ a childminder or carer, SCTS will pay the allowance if court attendance means that jurors have to employ them for longer than usual. [Interruption.] If Neil Bibby wants to listen to the answer, I am happy to continue to try to provide more information.

I am sure that his question has been heard by, or will be passed on to, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, and I am happy to ask it to provide a further response. The issue that the member raises is a matter for the SCTS. I am happy to involve myself in any correspondence on any issue that the member wants to ask further questions on, but he might be best to take the matter up directly with the SCTS.

I do, of course, recall the opening; it was a tremendous event, and it was much valued by the veterans in that area.

Veterans First Point is an NHS body that is staffed by an alliance of NHS clinicians and veterans. Veterans also have access to NHS services that are available to the broader population. Health and social care ministers and I are committed to continuing and enhancing mental health and other support for veterans across Scotland, and we are working closely together at ministerial and official levels across a range of issues.

In her first progress report since taking up office, the Scottish veterans commissioner, Susanna Hamilton, recognised the importance of, and the progress made to date in implementing, the veterans mental health and wellbeing action plan. Although it is for local NHS boards to determine clinical priorities and resources, I am happy to ask Dr Winstanley what discussions the implementation board is having about access to clinical provision as part of wider proposals for a new national service to support veterans’ mental health and wellbeing. That will also include third sector provision from organisations such as Combat Stress.

I assume that Mr Lumsden was not listening to my previous answer, which pointed out that we have far more police officers in Scotland, who are far better paid and have been more successful in reducing crime, and that we have record low numbers of homicides. The member has raised a question about what more can be done, which I accept. If the United Kingdom Government had not cut its police force to the extent that it has and we had therefore received consequential funding, we would have had more money to further increase the advantage that we have in terms of the number of police officers and their pay. I remind the member that a starting constable in Scotland is paid £5,000 more than one in the rest of the UK.

A superb job is being done by our police. I do not deny the pressures that Covid, the 26th United Nations climate change conference of the parties—COP26—or the royal funeral have brought to bear on them. However, they do a tremendous job and are properly compensated and remunerated in Scotland, which is more than the member can say happens in Tory England.

It is obvious to anyone who is willing to look that, if we pay police officers more and we have more of them, we attach a higher priority to policing them some of our counterparts do. [Interruption.] I know that some members do not like to hear that policing is much more underfunded in the rest of the UK than it is in Scotland.

I have mentioned some numbers, but we have higher levels of remuneration right up to the rank of assistant chief constable. We have also increased police funding, year on year, since 2016-17, and we have invested more than £10 billion in policing since the creation of Police Scotland, in 2013. We greatly value the vital role that our police officers play. In recognition of that, as I have said, we have ensured that they are the best paid in the UK, with starting salaries of around £5,000 more per year for a constable than elsewhere in the UK. The latest data shows that we have 30 officers per 10,000 in population in comparison to 24 officers in England and Wales. That shows the priority that the Government attaches to policing in Scotland.

Exactly as the member said, I did say that we would not be overseeing a reduction of around 4,000 police officers in Scotland. We have no intention of doing that. I do not recognise the point that the member has made about justice cuts. It would be useful to have that specified—what cuts to justice have taken place? We intend to ensure that there is a good budget settlement. Of course, we will find out more next week when the Deputy First Minister outlines the budget for Scotland.

It would be useful to have the Labour Party acknowledge the constraints under which we are having to operate. It is the same in Wales because of the UK Government’s austerity policies, which are affecting our ability to do as much as we want to in relation to vital public services. We have no intention of overseeing a cut of the magnitude that the member has mentioned, and we do not want to see cuts to the justice budget.

A number of the points that Beatrice Wishart raised in the first part of her question, such as those about career progression and opportunities in the police, are matters for the chief constable, which we do not get involved in. The underlying point to her question is, as ever, about resources—that is perfectly legitimate. I am saying that my intention is to ensure that we do not have to suffer as a result of the cuts that are coming from Westminster, the impact of inflation, which has reduced our budget this year by £1.7 billion, and the hugely increased cost of wage settlements this year. Everyone recognises that those are huge pressures. It is our job to do as much as we can to mitigate the impacts on our vital public services, and I am sure that that is what the Deputy First Minister will do when he delivers the budget next week.

We have ensured that not just Edinburgh but the entire nation has received the appropriate level of resourcing from Police Scotland—indeed, above the levels that the Conservative Party has demanded in the past.

It is worth noting—because a cross-border comparison was drawn last week by Miles Briggs’s colleague Jamie Greene—that we have far more police officers per capita than there are elsewhere and that police officers are better paid here than they are elsewhere, with a starting constable earning £5,000 per year more. We have a record low number of homicides, and we have some record low levels of crime.

To me, all of that is a mark of success. It would be good if, for once, instead of constantly denigrating Police Scotland, members acknowledged Police Scotland’s achievements in driving down crime and acknowledged the higher levels of policing and police pay that we have in Scotland.