Budget plea as English forces outstrip capital spend in Scotland

The state of Police Scotland’s finances has been laid bare, with forces in England and Wales now receiving capital funding that is 1.4 times higher.

The state of Police Scotland’s finances has been laid bare, with forces in England and Wales now receiving capital funding that is 1.4 times higher.

Chief Constable Jo Farrell admitted that officers are working in some “appalling” buildings as she outlined an increased £83 million budget demand for capital projects next year.

Police Scotland also wants an extra £59 million in day-to-day spending, warning that a ‘flat cash’ settlement would see officer numbers fall to around 15,000.

Holyrood’s criminal justice committee is conducting its pre-budget scrutiny ahead of the publication of the Scottish Government’s 2025/26 spending plans on December 4.

The SNP administration will have an extra £3.4 billion – made up of £2.8 billion for day-to-day spending and £610 million for capital investment – as a result of the UK budget unveiled last month by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Martyn Evans, chair of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), told MSPs there was an “extraordinary difference” between the capital spending funding available to forces in England and Wales compared to Scotland.

“The capital allocations of police services in England and Wales are 1.4 times higher than those of Police Scotland,” he said.

“That is a significant difference, but we are not even asking to come up to the level of 1.4 times more to meet the average down south. Our ask will bring us to a capital allocation of about 1.3 or so times more.

“The situation down south means that those services have the ability to borrow, they have great reserves and are able to make a higher investment in their estate, and it is the estate I am most interested in.

Farrell said: “We are now in a situation in which we are repairing the repairs…

“Some of the estate that our people are working in is, quite frankly, appalling and does not in any way portray an image of the organisation as one that can be trusted to deliver for communities or to give our people the right environment to make them feel as though they are being cared for.”

The force’s ‘estates masterplan’ includes a combination of “new build, co-locations and consolidation”, with proposals unveiled last year to consider the closure of 29 stations.

Some of these stations contain cells, which would mean people who need to be booked in would have to be transferred elsewhere – often to stations many miles away.

“Some of the estate that our people are working in is, quite frankly, appalling”

Scottish Labour MSP Pauline McNeill told the SPA: “The committee is well aware of the relationship between poorly maintained buildings, poor environments and mental health, and a whole lot of other issues.

“Closing police offices makes savings in one sense, but communities and police officers are concerned about being out of operation while they have to travel much further back and forth.”

Among the requests to the government are a shift to multi-year funding for the force – allowing it to plan its own budget further ahead – and borrowing powers.

Farrell said: “We have identified multi-year funding together with borrowing and the ability to have some reserves as the three key elements for financial planning and operational delivery that, I believe, are required for the organisation.

“The budget is £1.4 billion. It is a national service – a service that will be able to derive and deliver benefits for communities only if we continue to be able to make wise capital decisions and decisions about revenue.”

Police Scotland also said its funding asks are based on a 4.75 per cent pay increase that has been offered to officers – which is lower than the demands made by the Scottish Police Federation.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, the Scottish Prison Service, and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service are also seeking an uplift in the December 4 budget.

“If we use the technology right and in an efficient way, then you will see justice earlier and be reassured that perpetrators will feel the full weight of the justice system”

The budget demands of Scotland’s justice system

Excludes in-year funding requests made the government, and small amount of ring-fenced ‘non-cash’ allocation for accounting adjustments (predominantly depreciation).

* Forecast spend is £67.5m.

Analysis: has Reeves rescued Scotland’s cash-strapped police force?

By Alan Roden

Every Halloween, Scotland’s chief constables do their very best to give Scotland’s politicians a scare.

It’s this time of year when annual budget demands are submitted, complete with dire warnings about what could happen without a funding uplift.

Trick or treat? The force has to wait until December to get its answer.

This annual merry-go-round is no way to run a multi-million pound organisation, and Jo Farrell and SPA chair Martyn Evans are understandably making a renewed plea for a multi-year settlement.

As Evans told MSPs: “Every year, Police Scotland has to meet its budget on the dot… but bringing in spending on target annually is really hard.

“Annuality… drives a more conservative approach to revenue and police officer numbers, and it does not allow us to do proper financial planning to invest in our crumbling estate.”

The problem for Scottish ministers is that they do not know precisely how much they can spend until the UK budget is announced.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is, rightly, taking action to address that challenge, ensuring that UK spending reviews will set detailed plans for three years ahead from now on.

She is also shifting to just one fiscal event a year, which should improve government policymaking. (We have seen what happens with ‘mini-budgets’ like the one in the short-lived Liz Truss premiership, which continues to cause pain today for anyone with a mortgage.)

Reeves gave SNP ministers an unexpected treat in her eve-of-Halloween budget: the largest settlement for the Scottish Government in real terms in the history of devolution.

With a £3.4 billion top-up, Scottish Finance Secretary Shona Robison now has a significantly larger pot of cash to distribute.

Given the scale of the challenges facing the national police force and the wider justice system, Robison would be well advised to deliver a real-terms increase in both revenue and capital budgets for 2025/26.

A £59 million in day-to-day spending for Police Scotland is the minimum needed to maintain a workforce of 16,600 officers, and it’s clear that we cannot continue to just “repair the repairs” in crumbling police buildings – as Farrell put it herself.

With prisons at bursting point, and lengthy backlogs in the courts, the entire justice system needs an urgent cash injection.

Reeves has set the scene, and all eyes are now on the Scottish Government.

“If we use the technology right and in an efficient way, then you will see justice earlier and be reassured that perpetrators will feel the full weight of the justice system”