Scottish police forces split on money-saving merger plan

Published on Monday 13 September 2010 15:47

SCOTLAND'S police forces are split over whether to merge to save money in the face of forthcoming budget cuts.

The Scottish Policing Board was presented with two alternatives to the current eight Scottish force structure - one single force, or three, probably covering the east, west and north of the country.

However, representatives of Grampian and Northern police boards spoke out against any centralisation. Sources say only Strathclyde is clearly in favour of a single force, with others yet to be convinced either way.

Any change to policing structure would need new legislation and with Scottish elections taking place next year, they would be included in the main party's manifestos.

Norman MacLeod, convener of the Northern Joint Police Board, and Martin Greig, his counterpart at Grampian, opposed continuing the centralisation review but were outvoted.

Mr MacLeod said: "From an operational and financial point of view we would not see the benefits (of merging] in the first few years. There's no real knowledge of what savings would be achieved by having one or three police forces in Scotland."

Mr Greig added: "We've suffered badly in the past from Central Belt bias and centralisation would seriously disadvantage police services in the North-east, creating further risks for public safety."

There are concerns that policies and systems which suit Edinburgh or Glasgow would be imposed on rural forces, which face different challenges.

The UK government will carry out its spending review in October, after which the Scottish Government will say how this will effect funding for police forces. The police are expecting cuts of up to 25 per cent over four years, and up to 10 per cent next year alone.

Stephen Curran, convenor of the Strathclyde Joint Police Board, said: "We've got huge savings to make so it is sensible to look at structure to see if we can make savings there, rather than take police off the streets."

Robert Brown, justice spokesman for the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said: "A 'one size fits all' approach to policing in Scotland is a very bad idea and Liberal Democrats will resist this every step of the way."

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "The Scottish Policing Board agreed that the efficiencies identified would not be enough on their own to meet the likely scale of the financial challenge, beyond the next two years. We decided that further work should be undertaken to explore structural reform options."

Acpos president Chief Constable Patrick Shearer said: "An initial high level report was presented to the Scottish Policing Board today which provides, for the first time, analysis in relation to the cost of delivering policing functions across Scotland. The report does not make any specific recommendations about changes to the current model but identifies that there are benefits which could be accrued."