Scottish budget 2024-25 - Chief Constable statement

Chief Constable Jo Farrell has outlined her response to the Scottish Government Budget during an evidence session at the Scottish Parliament’s Criminal Justice Committee today, Wednesday 20 December.

Her full opening address is below -

My perspective, as Chief Constable at Durham, was that under the direction of Sir Iain Livingstone, Police Scotland became a highly credible public sector organisation known for its compassion.

Police Scotland attracts huge public support, is highly operationally competent and is very well regarded across the UK and internationally.

There have been many clear successes – the policing of the COVID pandemic; COP26; Operation Unicorn; the world-leading homicide response – these are a few of the things that have contributed to that view.

That view has been strengthened during my preparation to become Police Scotland’s Chief Constable and since I took command.

I have been meeting with officers and staff all across Scotland and I am deeply impressed by the passion and commitment I have found.

I’ve also met with key partners including from the criminal justice sector and local councils and it is clear the regard with which policing is held in Scotland.

Police Scotland is a national asset. It is a privilege to be entrusted with the leadership of so many talented, professional and courageous police officers, staff and volunteers.

Yesterday’s welcome budget announcement provided an overall £104m uplift over and above flat cash funding for policing,

I will return to what that funding will enable us to do in a moment. But I recognise policing has been allocated the majority of a £128m ask, when not all asks could be met and some budgets are being cut.

The allocation is, I believe, important recognition of Police Scotland’s value and the contribution policing makes to Scotland being a safe place to live and work with historically low levels of crime.

I believe passionately in the value that policing brings to our communities: keeping people safe from harm, protecting the vulnerable, bringing criminals to justice, solving problems, and reducing offending. We stand up for, and with our communities, which strengthens them, improves their wellbeing and allows them to prosper.

I have placed trust, confidence and performance at the top of our agenda.

I want us to be highly trusted by the people we serve.

When the public call us they must have the confidence that our service delivery will be of the highest possible standard. Key to delivering trust and confidence across our communities is our visible, engaging, and proactive local policing teams.

Our frontline officers, both in response teams and less visible specialist roles, work tirelessly to keep people safe: responding to calls for help, taking drug dealers and organised crime gangs off the streets, and securing justice for victims and their families.

I want us to be willing to challenge ourselves so that we continually improve; and to be high performing. It is vital we continue to build on the cultural progress which has been made in recent years through investment in leadership and a focus on our values and standards driven through our Policing Together Programme.

As Chief Constable, my operational focus is in three areas - first, addressing threat, harm, and risk; second, prevention, problem solving and proactivity; and third looking after the wellbeing of officers and staff so they can deliver for the public.

As I mentioned, I welcome the budget announcement yesterday. The improvement on flat cash is recognition of our track record on reforming to maintain capacity and improve service while returning savings to the public purse.

A revenue uplift of £74.5m allows us to restart officer recruitment for the year ahead; fund the cost of this year’s 7% pay award for officers and staff and make a credible pay offer in 2024-25.

A pension rebate in the region of £17m next year will support us to progress a programme of voluntary retirement and redundancy.

Our capital allocation was enhanced by £13m - a welcome improvement, although our capital allocation has been a challenge over a number of years and remains low compared to other police services in the UK.

More broadly, it is clear from my early observations since becoming Chief Constable, that year-to-year budgeting makes it more difficult to effectively plan and deliver change, for example projecting recruitment needs or co-ordinating and prioritising the introduction of new technologies.

This cumulative effect slows our ability to transform and give our officers and staff the tools a modern police service needs to keep people safe as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Body worn video is an example of a complex project which required IT infrastructure to support storage of footage and data security. To get the maximum benefits we needed a national crime system and partners had to be ready to take evidence right through the criminal justice process.

One of my first commitments to my fellow officers and staff when I joined Police Scotland was that we had to push-on with the roll-out of body worn video. We are moving at pace and I expect roll-out of body worn video to frontline officers and staff in the summer.

That demonstrates policing’s commitment to playing our part in necessary progress across the entire criminal justice system. I have been meeting with key partners and I believe there is a shared recognition that innovation and improvement must be prioritised and accelerated to support better and quicker court outcomes for victims and to provide efficiency and value for the public.

The overtime cost of officers being cited for court – with very few of them being called to give evidence – is £3m. This not a sustainable position financially, or operationally. We must reduce cancelled rest days and leave and increase the time officers can spend in communities.

The Summary Case Management (SCM) Pilot, of which we are a partner, aims to improve the summary court process by resolving cases at the earliest opportunity and we are already seeing the benefits, and interim evaluation is very positive.

Targeting domestic abuse cases reduces trauma for victims and witnesses and allows for a significant reduction in citations, including police and other witnesses.

Another clear challenge is that policing must reset the parameters of our role in responding to people living with poor mental health. Each year, officers deploy to well over 100,000 mental health related incidents - the equivalent work of between 500 and 600 full time officers. In over 87% of these incidents no crime has taken place.

Resetting those parameters will help ensure the most appropriate help is provided and allow officers to return to preventing crime and responding to threat, harm and risk as soon as possible after the moment of crisis has passed and public safety is assured.

Although I welcome the important uplift in our budget, a changing, ageing population; a cost-of-living crisis driving vulnerability and pressure on other services; civil unrest; new laws and increasingly complex investigations all contribute to growing community need and increasing contacts to policing from the public.

The acute pressure on public finances will continue to bring urgency to the important principle that Police Scotland must be as efficient and provide as much value to the public as is possible.

Police Scotland must focus intensely on our core duties and what matters to the people we serve. If what we do doesn’t protect the vulnerable from harm, prevent crime or support our officers and staff, we will challenge that and redirect resources to prioritise the front line.

This work will allow us to develop a new operating model to live within projected funding while maintaining service to the public by prioritising the frontline, removing back-office duplication, and creating capacity to deal with new and increasing threats in the online space.

I have directed that we approach change differently - bringing together key experts from different functions across the Service to deliver change with agility and at speed.

Ensuring Scotland continues to be a safe place to live and work is my commitment and priority as Chief Constable.