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Meeting of the Parliament 17 May 2012

17 May 2012 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Civilian Police Staff

Campbell, Roderick SNP North East Fife Watch on SPTV

There is a strong sense of déjà vu about the debate. Last week, during the stage 1 debate on the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Bill, I reminded the chamber of Calum Steele’s comments to the Justice Committee. He said:

“We must look at the jobs that we do and ask ourselves not who does them, but whether they need doing in the first place.”

That must be the first port of call in any review of staffing. We must then, of course, look at issues of duplication. If we have a national service, do we need quite as many staff in IT, HR or finance—or as many chief constables, for that matter?

Calum Steele also said that

“we should never get into a situation in which we talk about the value of a police officer versus the value of a support member of staff.”—[Official Report, Justice Committee, 28 February 2012; c 1009 and 1008.]

This is about balance—balance in the context of a commitment to an additional 1,000 police officers, which was given in 2007; in the context of a substantial growth in the number of support staff between 1997 and 2000; and in the light of the budget that is now available. Of course, the figures for support staff have been reduced, but if we take as an example not 2005 but quarter 3 in 2003, there were more support staff back then than at quarter 4 in 2011. Therefore, we can be selective about the dates or periods that we choose.

The Labour motion refers to concerns that

“cuts to civilian posts are taking police officers off the front line to perform tasks better suited to civilian staff”.

However, we know that police support staff numbers vary enormously between Strathclyde and Lothian as a proportion of total staff, and that, in Fife, there is a tradition of a significant number of police officers being office based for at least 75 per cent of the working week. We know that resolving a crime might involve officers in front-line tasks and in what others might think of as backroom staff tasks—and certainly in tasks that take officers off the streets for a while.

Traditions and cultures vary, and the new service must take all such issues into account operationally, within the budgetary constraints under which we operate. Why would an independent audit help? Can a uniform standard be established for a support staff role? I doubt it. Do we want to become embroiled in what Andrea Quinn of the Scottish Police Services Authority described as the “disingenuous” distinction between front-line and back-office tasks?

Would we prefer police numbers to drop, as in England and Wales—the number of police will drop by 700 in Devon and Cornwall alone—and to have a Government that loses its police force’s confidence? Unison argues that large numbers of police officers in one force do what are essentially civilian roles in other forces but, contrary to what some politicians suggest, there is no agreed optimum balance between civilian staff and police officers.

Chief Constable Smith made it clear in relation to the approximately 1,000 staff who have gone to date that, as a matter of policy, police officers have never been put in support staff roles. I say in the interests of balance that he conceded that some police officers are still in roles that it would be more appropriate for support staff to do.

In some parts of Scotland, it will be difficult to reduce the number of support staff through people leaving naturally and through voluntary severance. However, we should remember that ACPOS’s figures for redundancies are cumulative over the period until 2015-16.

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Meeting of the Parliament 17 May 2012

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