Justice secretary faces questions over policing

The Scottish Government has been accused of presiding over a “broken promise” with a potential shortfall of tens of millions of pounds in the policing budget for 2018-19 at Holyrood.

Oliver Mundell, the Tory MSP for Dumfriesshire, suggested that Police Scotland had failed to deliver “promised cost efficiencies” since it was created by the Scottish Government in the last parliament.

Mundell, speaking at Holyrood’s topical questions, highlighted what he said were warnings in last year’s Audit Scotland report about a potential £85m shortfall in the policing budget by 2018-19.

The MSP called on justice secretary Michael Matheson to state “what analysis has the Government made of the impact that its broken promise will have on frontline services, particularly in rural communities such as Dumfries and Galloway?”

However, the justice secretary said the Scottish Government would continue “to invest in our police service in Scotland” and stated that the additional funded had been made available for the force.

Matheson went onto claim that the Tory Government at Westminster had made massive cuts to policing south of the Border. 

He said: “The report referred to the financial situation in the previous spending review period and did not take into account the funding allocations that have been arrived at by the Scottish Government.

“For example, the report took no account of the additional £55 million of funding as part of the reform budget to which I have just made reference.

“It also worked on the assumption that no further financial savings would be achieved in Police Scotland, but that is exactly what the reform budget is there to do—to invest in areas in order to get greater efficiencies.

“The financial position that was set out in the Audit Scotland report does not reflect the situation following the spending review.

“I hope that that will reassure the member about the actions that the Scottish Government is taking to continue to invest in our police service in Scotland.

“We certainly do not copy the approach that has been taken by his colleagues in England and Wales, which has resulted in the loss of almost 17,000 police officers.”