Official Report search · Parliament Workbench

Chamber

Meeting of the Parliament 05 December 2012

05 Dec 2012 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Policing

Grahame, Christine SNP Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale Watch on SPTV

I am sorry, but I do not have time. This is a short debate.

The fact is that the single police force in Scotland is envied in England and Wales—members should listen to Radio 4 occasionally. Instead of cuts to the front line, we are cutting our cloth by removing duplication of chiefs, not Indians, if you will forgive my metaphor. Indeed, Labour has stated that it would have made cuts of 12 per cent in England and Wales. As for the Tory-Liberal coalition, there is the possibility of 16,000 police in England and Wales losing their jobs. I invite members to compare that with a 7.5 per cent increase in the police in Scotland.

I turn to the so-called jostling between the SPA chief and the chief constable. I am confident that the issue will be resolved. Indeed, they indicated to the committee that, by 5 December—I think that that is today, but I am not sure—resolution should be well on its way, and we hope to have that meeting of minds. Perhaps it has done them no harm to spend so much time together. The committee was told:

“We are also focused on working together; in fact, we spend a lot of time together and between October and Christmas we will have achieved the appointment of all the deputy and assistant chief constables and have agreed a voluntary redundancy scheme.”—[Official Report, Justice Committee, 27 November 2012; c 2109.]

Two very powerful men have got to know each other and I am sure that their relationship will work in time. It has a lot to do with personalities. I am not going to the wedding, but it might get close.

As back benchers who were concerned about the SPA and the single police force, Alison McInnes, Graeme Pearson and I put to the Parliamentary Bureau and then the Presiding Officer the idea of a cross-party scrutiny panel comprising back benchers from all parties—without a built-in Government majority—and chaired by the convener of the Justice Committee in an independent capacity to look at the arrangements for the implementation and management of the police service of Scotland; the relationships and structures in place to deliver the responsibilities and functions attached to the SPA, the chief constable and the justice directorate; and the operation of arrangements for policing in Scotland. It is quite a detailed plan. The panel would have quarterly meetings and would report on its considerations. Other parliamentary committees would be involved, such as the Local Government and Regeneration Committee and the Finance Committee, and the members of the panel would be there in a representative capacity.

I compare what is happening here to what is happening in England, where there was an election for police and crime commissioners with a 15 per cent turnout at a cost of £75 million. They are going in completely the wrong direction. In Scotland, by having a single police force and introducing parliamentary scrutiny we are cutting our cloth, not cutting the service.

15:14

Search Hansard contributions

Meeting of the Parliament 05 December 2012

In the same item of business