Illustration by Kimberly Carpenter

Notebook: Scotland’s police and justice news

  • Budget deal will have ‘consequences’

  • Fears domestic abuse is driving rise in rapes

  • Plans for Commonwealth Games fan zone

By 1919 staff

Notebook: Scotland’s police and justice news

  • Budget deal will have ‘consequences’

  • Fears domestic abuse is driving rise in rapes

  • Plans for Commonwealth Games fan zone

Illustration by Kimberly Carpenter

Budget settlement will have consequences, chief warns

The Scottish Government’s budget settlement for policing is “manageable” but will require “some difficult decisions”, Jo Farrell has told the Justice Secretary.

The Chief Constable met Angela Constance to discuss the funding uplift of £90 million, which she has said is well short of what is needed to “stand still”.

Newly-released minutes of the summit have revealed Farrell “welcomed” the increase, but warned hard choices would be needed in the next year.

Similarly, in an update to the Scottish Police Authority, she said the budget decision “will have consequences in the context of a service that has already delivered significant efficiencies, including workforce reductions”.

Domestic abuse fuelling rise in rape cases

Rising numbers of rapes in Scotland are being driven in part by domestic abuse, new figures have indicated.

More than 2,200 crimes of rape were recorded in the first nine months of 2025/26, the highest since comparable records began.

Of those, 1,298 involved a domestic element, meaning they were committed by a partner or former partner.

A report into the matter suggested the true number of domestic rapes was likely to be even higher.

In his quarterly update to the Scottish Police Authority, Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs placed the issue at the very top of his report.

“Women and girls should be able to live their lives free from all forms of violence, abuse, harassment and exploitation,” he said.

Volunteer drive to fight wildfires

Volunteers could be trained up to tackle wildfires under new plans to deal with the rising number of countryside blazes.

A series of proposals have been tabled by the Scottish Government amid concerns wildfires will increase due to a changing climate and careless visitor behaviour.

Among those would be the creation of a “mountain rescue-style approach to trained wildfire volunteers”, with plans for a pilot scheme in the Cairngorms already underway.

Earlier this year 1919 revealed record numbers of wildfires across Scotland, with firefighters spending more than 100 days tackling the issue in 2025.

Police estate overhaul on track

Auditors have given a cautious thumbs up to the plan to overhaul the police estate.

The force’s £500 million estates masterplan aims to modernise buildings, slim down the number of ageing structures, and reduce the maintenance burden.

But the proposals are contentious, with some fearing it will reduce visibility in communities across the country.

A report said the project was on track, but flagged some concerns around internal efficiency and accountability.

Delays in key staff appointments and resource arrangements could lead to projects being “delivered late” if they are not addressed urgently, the auditors added.

Staff shortages lead to cash boost

Personnel shortages among Police Scotland staff have provided the force with an unexpected boost of nearly £5 million.

Budgets provide for a headcount of 5,928 workers to support frontline officers in keeping communities safe.

However, numbers at the last count were at 5,870, resulting in unspent wages and related costs of around £4.7 million by the third quarter of the last financial year.

That has contributed to overall savings of £12.6 million, which also include the over-recovery of income and one-off cash benefits.

Drone benefits revealed

Police drones have embarked on more than 1,000 flights since the capability rolled out in 2024.

New figures have revealed the devices have been utilised on 395 different operations across all parts of Scotland, clocking 377 hours of flying time.

The technology has been used to support officers in a range of missions, from football matches and political marches, to fire investigations and missing person reports.

The east of Scotland accounted for the most, with 504 of the 1,140 flights.

Reduced firework disorder sees fewer cops injured

Improved security around last year’s bonfire night led to a notable reduction in police injuries, a new report has shown.

More than 80 cops were wounded amid shocking scenes across the country in 2023.

And while they dropped to less than 30 in 2024, new figures have shown they plummeted further to just four last year.

After the fireworks season passed off largely peacefully, Police Scotland hailed better intelligence and detection in the build-up, as well as stricter enforcement.

The work of Operation Moonbeam “proves that year-on-year lessons are being learned and implemented accordingly”, the report concluded.

Fan zone plans for Commonwealth Games

Authorities are considering the creation of a fan zone for the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

Police papers have revealed talks between the force and Glasgow 2026 Ltd for “potential plans for a public fan zone” in the city.

Half a million spectators are expected for the curtailed competition in July, as well as 3,000 athletes.

In March, 1919 revealed that the event is expected to cost around £1.6 million to police.

Officers will have some recent experience of the zones, with several similar spaces planned to mark Scotland’s football World Cup matches weeks prior.

Bid to encourage green car use

Police chiefs are considering launching a salary sacrifice scheme for officers and staff who want to lease electric vehicles.

A number of similar schemes are already in operation and prove popular, like cycle-to-work initiatives and childcare vouchers.

Now Police Scotland may incentivise the use of green vehicles, a move which would see employees forgoing some of their salary in exchange for cheaper cars.

A report stated: “This work remains under consideration and is subject to procurement, affordability, governance, and value-for-money assessment before any decision is taken.”

Snare B&B

Councils have been forced to probe social housing occupants suspected of sub-letting their properties through a popular accommodation booking system.

Research by 1919 reveals there have been eight investigations in the last three years where local authority tenants are alleged to have advertised their property to guests on Airbnb.

A further two cases investigated sub-letting to other businesses.

Five cases were recorded in Renfrewshire, with instances also in East Renfrewshire, Edinburgh, Moray, South Ayrshire and Stirling.

Relief after the chaos

By Magnus Gardham 
Former Scotland Office special adviser

Got there in the end. That, at least, was the snap verdict of the Chancellor’s backbench colleagues, who waved their order papers wildly at the end of her 65-minute budget speech.

They have endured a miserable few weeks as downbeat briefings, followed by clumsy un-briefings, sparked fears of a political disaster for Labour and dented confidence in the government.

And the drama didn’t end on budget day, with claims that Rachel Reeves misled the public followed by this month’s resignation of the chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

“The most chaotic lead up to a budget in living memory,” taunted Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch in the Commons as she highlighted the pre-budget blunder that led to this resignation – the early publication of the OBR assessment.

When the spending plans were finally announced – as we knew to expect – Reeves avoided the poisonous step of increasing the basic rate of income tax in clear breach of Labour’s manifesto.

Instead, she revealed a plethora of smaller taxes that Labour can argue will hit those who can afford to pay more. And, of course, a freezing of thresholds until 2031 which will bring more people into tax and into higher rates.

Those rates do not apply in Scotland where income tax thresholds are devolved to Holyrood.

“The Chancellor handed Scottish Labour another get-out-of-jail card”

But the Chancellor’s move goes a long way to explaining the genuinely positive reaction from Labour MSPs. They had faced the unhappy prospect of explaining complex intergovernmental fiscal rules – and why they would cost the Scottish Government £1 billion – had Reeves raised the basic rate by 2p.

With the Holyrood election looming ever larger, the Chancellor handed Scottish Labour another get-out-of-jail card.

The two-child benefit cap was popular with the public, but appalled Labour.

By axeing it, in what was easily the most heartfelt section of her speech, Reeves delighted her own side but also removed a potentially devastating dividing line between Labour and the SNP.

SNP ministers were committed to mitigating the impact of the cap, starting just weeks before the election, and were preparing to hammer Labour – sorry, make that “callous Labour” – for the £155 million it would have cost them next year.

The Scottish Government will now save that cash and have an extra £820 million to spend, to the end of the spending review period in 2028, through the Barnett formula.

Reeves tried to credit Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar with the windfall. “Because he asked us to,” she told the Commons.

That is not really how the Barnett formula works and the sum, reflecting UK spending, was a lot less than last year’s bumper £3.4 billion transfer.

It will not stop SNP claims of austerity in the run up to next May but then, nothing would.

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