By Gemma Fraser
Head of content
The number of police officers absent from work as a result of post-traumatic stress has soared by two thirds in just two years.
New figures obtained by 1919 also reveal the number of working days lost has more than doubled in recent years, increasing from 3,313 in 2023 to 6,863 last year.
During the same period, the number of officers taking time off because of post-traumatic stress (PTS) increased by 67 per cent, from 36 to 60.
The Scottish Police Federation (SPF) said it is clear that the force “does not have a grip on the problem”.
However, Police Scotland said the health and welfare of its staff is one of its “highest priorities”.
The growth in days lost has outpaced the increase in the number of officers affected, suggesting that the impact on each affected person has worsened.
This also has a knock-on impact on remaining officers, who are exposed to higher rates of trauma, according to the SPF.
Its chair David Threadgold said: “There is an increased awareness now of PTSD and trauma. In some ways, the figures potentially show the success of the work that’s being done to highlight that.
“But by the same token, it’s very obvious that the demand on officers is still relentless, and the exposure and impact of trauma is clearly on the increase – as is shown by the numbers.
“The number of individual officers affected paints a picture, but if you look at it in terms of those who remain, they are exposed to even more trauma, so it’s a vicious circle.”
Threadgold added that Police Scotland has “no effective mechanisms” to deal with exposure to trauma and called for more “proactive” policies.
“Something as simple as not having exposure to a colleague after a traumatic event can have a huge impact on how an officer deals with that trauma,” he said.
“We’ve no mechanism in place for formal debriefs, and we are missing huge opportunities to be proactive in order to reduce these numbers.
“The evidence would suggest – particularly with the numbers for up to May this year – that the service does not have a grip on this problem.”
The data, released by Police Scotland via freedom of information legislation, only records the number of unique police officers who experienced at least one PTS absence during each calendar year.
Officers with multiple PTS-related absences in the same year are counted once only.
By May this year, 45 officers had already experienced at least one PTS-related absence, representing 75 per cent of the total number affected during the whole of 2025.
Up to this point, 2,738 working days have already been lost.
Gary Hayes, co-founder and chief executive of the charity PTSD999, delivers mental health first aid training across the UK to blue light services and the prison service.
He warned that treating complex trauma is routinely under-prioritised across the country.
“Across the emergency services, they’ve just closed their training purses,” he told 1919.
“They don’t seem to accept the fact that nobody else outside the military struggles with PTS/PTSD. The cops on the ground get it because they’re living through it, but it’s the management that choose to ignore it.
“The awareness presentation that we deliver is very punchy and powerful and every time I deliver the presentation, no matter where it is, we get the same reaction.
“Officers and support staff come up in tears because they resonate with what we are trying to do, but sadly the emergency services seem to ignore the fact that there is this massive elephant in the room.
“Officers are taking their own lives through all the stress and the strain and the cancelled rest days.”
1919 revealed earlier this year that more than half a million working days had been lost to mental ill health in Police Scotland in six years.
In total, 568,911 officer and staff days were lost to psychological disorders, including anxiety, depression and stress.
Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs said: “Officers and staff work hard to deliver for communities and keep people safe, and our workforce is under pressure from increased threats and a rapidly intensifying operational environment.
“The nature of policing is such that our officers and staff find themselves in situations which can be stressful, traumatic and can have a lasting impact on them.
“Health and welfare remains one of Police Scotland’s highest priorities, with enhanced provisions from both our Employee Assistance and Your Wellbeing Matters programmes.
“We have a range of mechanisms in place to support our employees who are absent from work for any reason, and have increased resource within our health and wellbeing team.”