THE promise by the first SNP Scottish Government back in 2007 to have 1000 extra police officers across the country continues to be met according to the latest figures released yesterday.
The latest police officer quarterly strength figures published by Scotland’s Chief Statistician and based on the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers employed by Police Scotland on June 30 this year, show there were 17,259 officers on staff that day – up 87 on the year before, and an increase of 1025 (or 6.3%) from the 16,234 FTE police officers recorded on March 31, 2007.
Though the “1000 extra” pledge is no longer government policy, Minister for Community Safety Ash Denham said: “Police Scotland continues to develop and deploy its workforce to meet the needs of communities, helping keep people safe and crime down, while also preparing for the impact of Brexit.”
Saying that officer deployments are for Police Scotland to decide, Denholm, below, added: “Officer numbers in Scotland remain significantly above those in 2007 – in contrast to the reduction of around 19,000 officers in England and Wales.
“We remain committed to protecting the police revenue budget in real terms in every year of this parliament, delivering an additional
£100 million over that period, with the funding we provide for policing now standing at more than £1.2 billion annually.
“We will continue to press the UK Government to pay back the £125m VAT paid by Police Scotland before the Treasury reversed this unfair policy in 2018. We have also been clear that any costs related to EU exit should not have a detrimental impact on Scotland’s public finances and should be met by the UK Government in full.”
The Scottish Tories have said the Barnett consequentials of £80m from Boris Johnson’s pledge to have 20,000 extra officers in England and Wales should be spent on 2000 more police officers for Scotland.
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