FMQs: Sturgeon urged to commit £100m UK cash handout to policing

Nicola Sturgeon was urged to commit and extra 100 million to the police

But the SNP leader insisted that police officers in Scotland are better funded than elsewhere in the UK as she came under fire over the issue at First Minister's Questions today.

The issue has been thrust into the spotlight over the past week after a video posted by the Scottish Police Federation went viral which showed a police station in Paisley deluged by leaking water and multiple buckets to mitigate damage.

Tory interim leader Jackson Carlaw said: "Yesterday the UK Government announced £1 billion extra for policing with the Scottish Government achieving some £100 million.

"Will the First Minister assure our hard working police officers that this additional funding will be used to protect police officer numbers - and at the very least improve the environment in which they are expected to work."

Mr Carlaw said the condition of police stations across the country was evidence of insufficient investment.

He said: "Water pouring in through ceilings and windows, mushrooms growing in the carpets and rats scurrying about the mouldy floors, what word would the First Minister use to describe the state of some of Scotland's police stations?"

Nicola Sturgeon has said that the Conservatives have a "nerve" to criticise her government's funding of policing in Scotland and insisted that the Scottish Government has protected police budgets.

She said: "We will continue to do everything within our power and our resources to protect police services the length and breadth of the country."

She insisted that total capital spending in Scotland is the fourth highest of all UK police forces and these have gone up by 52% this year, while police numbers have also been protected

Ms Sturgeon said: "I do think that Jackson Carlaw has something of a nerve to raise issues like this because before I address the issue directly, let me just remind Jackson Carlaw and the Chamber that it was indeed the Conservative Party that reduced the resource budget of this Government by £1.5 billion, that's 5% in real terms, since 2010.

"It's also the Conservatives who have robbed the Scottish police service of £125 million in VAT which should never have been paid."