Police ‘will axe 2,000 backroom staff’ even before single force
Jenny Marra has called for an independent audit of cuts
POLICE are planning to shed 2,000 support staff to meet budget cuts and prepare for a single Scottish force, in a move which has sparked fears of a depleted front line, with officers carrying out civilian roles.
The proposals have angered Unison, the public sector union, which called them “criminally wasteful, poorly thought-out and highly provocative”.
The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos) and the Scottish Government are determined to maintain the 1,000 extra police officers placed on the streets, which has seen crime drop to a 35-year low.
But it is feared some of those officers may be pulled off current duties to take on roles normally carried out by civilians.
Peter Veldon, regional organiser for Unison’s Scottish police staff, said: “Scotland’s police chiefs propose to meet budget constraints imposed by the Scottish Government almost entirely by cutting 2,000 support staff – even though 1,000 posts have already been cut in the last year.
“They plan an immediate budget cut of £6.5 million in the coming financial year, even before the new Scotland-wide police service begins.”
Unison warned the proposed cuts would be a retrograde step.
Dave Watson, head of bargaining and campaigns in Scotland, said: “Cutting 2,000 police staff would take policing in Scotland back to the 1970s.”
Referring to the TV drama that sent a modern-day detective back to work as a police officer in the 1970s, he said: “It would be like Life on Mars – but in fact, not in fiction.
“Unison has consistently warned of the danger of cutting police staff. It makes no economic or policing sense – it simply means that important support and expert jobs are increasingly done by police officers.”
Unison is sceptical about the Scottish Government’s pledge of no compulsory redundancies.
“I would not rule out industrial action,” Mr Watson said. “We are not at that stage yet. The Scottish Government has promised no compulsory redundancies, but how you achieve this without them is not easy to say.”
Scottish Labour’s community safety spokeswoman Jenny Marra urged the Scottish Government not to undervalue support staff.
“What the SNP must realise is that cutting police support staff is a false economy,” she said.
“We all want to see more police officers in Scotland, but they should be out on the beat, not stuck behind a desk doing jobs previously done by specialist support staff who have been sacked by the SNP.
“Scottish Labour is calling for the SNP government to conduct an independent audit of how many police officers have been taken off the beat as result of SNP cuts.”
However, the Scottish Government and Acpos defended the proposals. A Scottish Government spokesman said: “A single service will strip costly and unnecessary duplication out of the current eight-force structure.
“Reform of the police service will mean doing things differently – working more effectively and efficiently, delivering estimated savings of £1.4 billion over 15 years. Cutting out duplication including HR, finance and procurement will save over £40m a year.”
Chief Constable Kevin Smith, leading the transition to the Police Service of Scotland, added: “The reality is that with over 80 per cent of the police budget spent on employee related costs, and a commitment to maintain police officer numbers, it is inevitable that we will see a reduction in the number of police staff. We are looking at every aspect of policing to drive out savings before we consider staff cuts. We are determined not to bring police officers off the street to fill police staff roles.”
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Comments
There are 32 comments to this article
Page 1 of 3
duelaynomore
Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 03:07 AMSometimes you just have to break the eggs to make an omlette. Change can improve things if it is managed correctly, and if the old "must do" thinking is questioned. Most people resent wastage on minority issues, especially politically motivated aspects. We want the main emphasis of law and order to be "Safety for the public", and offences against property. That is why efforts against thefts and vandalism etc. should be given greater emphasis, and stiffer penalties to convicted individuals no matter what their ages. We need social cohesion, in the difficult times ahead, not this constant battle of "Them v Us" Etc.. My view is that more contract workers should be hired, to ensure that essential work is done, but the long term committments to generous pensions etc. are devolved to individuals, rather than the state council. I was told that 50 % of some police budgets are actually consumed by pension commitments..surely this cannot be good.
John-R
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 08:52 PMInteresting that the Scottish Government spokesman is quite clear on the reforms saving £1.5billion. Justice Minister Kenny Macaskil told the police he didnt know whether they would or not.
Lawnman
Saturday, January 28, 2012 at 01:03 AMPerhaps now we'll see less of them in supermarkets getting their messages as that's the only chance you've got to see them with the company car in the carpark.
Handsome Scotsman
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 09:45 PMDid you know this story is complete fiction?
Tintock Pete
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 09:39 PMPerhaps Unison is worried that 8 taxpayer funded full time reps and their hangers on will have to go back to their old jobs serving the public.
AuldLochinvar
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 08:11 PMI'd love to know why people look at budgets first, and don't ask first what jobs need to be done? Oh, my goodness, suddenly everybody's house is worth twice as much, let's hire folk so we can spend the extra property taxes! Does that happen? But if the community NEEDS 2000 police, and they need 500 back room staff, and the tax base somehow goes down, why not first figure out where the tax RATE should go up?
Lachie Mhor
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 07:43 PMI see that my previous remarks at 15 were censored by te moderator. Must have been very close to the truth.
Lachie Mhor
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 07:41 PMWe now have a severe dose of reality. A considerable number of these jobs were duplicated in the 7 existing forces. Why do the police have to rely on civilians whose work ethos is dictated by Unison. The Scottish Police Service is emerging into the 21st century. A national force is the logical progression for policing. It is a pity that they cannot find a competent organizer instead of a former Chief Constable of the Mickey Mouse Force.
samcoldstream
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 07:28 PM"Great Britain is one of the few developed nations in the world which still has 51 separate local Police Departments." (Source: CIA World Factbook)
The auld lies will nae wash any mair
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 07:01 PMUnison clearly would like us to believe their utter nonsense claim that merging the numerous county police forces into one unified police force for the whole of Scotland will require the same number of backroom people as before. They are crossing their fingers and hoping we are ignorant of the principle of economies of scale when they make such an outrageous claim.
Templar75
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 06:24 PMA single Police Force will never work it is going to gain nothing, to have Police Officers doing Civilian jobs is a load of nonsense.
Kobi
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 03:44 PM#19 Spot on. Expect to receive abuse for speaking the truth from the neandearthals on here.
Graham Day
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 03:08 PM11 - Daniel Rober - you manged an entire post without mentioning facist once.......well done.....
scouser
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 01:22 PMno matter what people think state spending is out of control and the blairbrown givernment is to blame, when blair won the election in 1997 state spending on the public sector was at 38%, in the years they were in power it rose to 48% and council taxes doubled, i have not talked to anyone who thinks the income tax and council tax rises helped the working people of this country, labour was so proud of low unemployment but failed to mention it was because of the massive beaurocracy they brought that needed over one million new public sector jobs, we saw councillors awarding themselves salaries of £200,000 plus bonuses cars and expense accounts not available to those in the private sector, we watched as they awarded themselves fabtastic pension schemes that saw them receive £80,000 when they retired, not forgetting that many of them retire after just 30 years of work, they are then allowed to take other public sector jobs after retiring once again on fantastic salaries, we saw the nhs create useless non jobs that created a bloated middle management again on fantastic salaies and perks, i nearly forgot about our wonderful doctors who saw their salaries double while their working hours halved, i for one hope the coalition will take spending back to 38% or less and soon
Cord McNally
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 11:23 AMThe Labour party are a hoot. These are the very clowns who ran the whole of the UK into chronic dept. Yet clearly they believe that we, the 'ordinary folk', have forgotten this! The gross over-spending by the previous Labour-run UK Govt has given the tories all the excuse they ever needed to viciously slash state spending. So now the current Scottish Govt. are having to deal with that. And those brass-necked Labour drones have the unmitigated gall to criticize the Scottish Govt. for trying to manage the very mess Labour brought to everyone. Labour are just as much an enemy of the Scottish people as the tories are. I wish folk would wake up to that fact.
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