'Wake-up call' warning over surge in Police Scotland resignations

A surge in Police Scotland officers quitting the force for other careers should be a "wake-up call" for the SNP, Scottish Labour claims.

The number of officers who left the single force for education, other employment or personal reasons rose by 49 per cent between 2019 and 2023, according to figures obtained by Labour through Freedom of Information requests.

Recent work by the Scottish Institute for Policing Research found almost half of officers said they would not have chosen policing as a career if they had known how demanding and resource-constrained it would be.

The Scottish Government has said officer numbers are expected to increase to 16,600.

But Labour justice spokesperson Pauline McNeill MSP has said the SNP is to blame for poor morale within the police.

She said: "These damning statistics are a glimpse into the tumbling morale among police officers after years of SNP cuts and a failure to provide police officers with the proper tools such as body-worn cameras.

"Policing will always be demanding but it's made harder when officers are expected to deliver the same level of reassurance to the public with far fewer resources.

"If more police burn out, the results could be a snowball effect where those left behind are even more stressed - the SNP must act now to reverse this trend."

The Scottish Government said: "We have ensured record police funding of £1.62bn during 2025-26, an increase of £70m on 2024-25.

"This means Police Scotland will take on more recruits this year than at any time since 2013 and the chief constable has stated that she expected numbers to reach 16,600.

"The increase in funding will support policing capacity and capability, the delivery of Police Scotland's three-year business plan and its estates masterplan and enable progress on delivering key priorities including delivering body-worn video cameras for officers.

"Scotland continues to have more officers per capita than England and Wales and this continues to be a safe place to live, with recorded crime at one of the lowest levels since 1974 and down 40 per cent since 2006-07."