National police force scheme attacked by justice expert

A LEADING law and order expert warns today that plans to create a national police force for Scotland will lead to police taking their "eye off the ball".

Jim Gallagher, the former head of the Scottish Government's justice department, writes in today's Scotsman that merging the country's eight forces into a single force will create bureaucratic turmoil and lead to a drop in performance.

The single force idea was backed by Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray during the party's manifesto launch earlier this week as a key plank of his bid to save hundreds of millions of pounds from the public purse over the coming five years.

Mr Gallagher says it is an "open question" as to whether a forced merger would do any better at cutting costs than the current system.