Justice secretary to be questioned on resourcing of police in Scotland

Michael Matheson - Image credit: Scottish Government Flickr

Scottish Government funding of policing will come under the Holyrood spotlight at a Scottish Parliament committee today.

The Scottish Parliament’s Justice Sub-Committee on Policing will be questioning the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Michael Matheson, about how he intends to resource policing in Scotland.

The sub-committee has already heard evidence from police authorities and staff associations as part of their draft budget scrutiny.

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All of them agreed there were cost pressures currently facing Scotland’s police service.

Issues which were previously raised include the forecast deficit of £27.5m faced by Police Scotland, the claim by Chief Superintendent Gordon Crossan that an extra £80m is needed to deliver policing services and Police Scotland’s status as the only UK force with a VAT liability.

Also mentioned and likely to come up in the discussion with Matheson are IT inefficiencies and resulting extra costs, and the funding of community services.

Justice Sub-Committee convener Mary Fee MSP said: “We heard concerns during the first session we held on the police budget – from both those at the operational and managerial levels of policing in Scotland.

“Although there was no clear consensus from our panel, there was agreement that there are significant cost pressures on Police Scotland.

“We will be asking the cabinet secretary how he intends to ensure that the police service has the resources to continue as the ‘service of first response and last resort’ and the actions he will take to address the issues we heard about, and to influence positive changes to Policing Scotland.”