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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

McLetchie, David Con Lothian Watch on SPTV

I welcome the opportunity to debate the future of civilian staff in Scotland’s police forces, which touches on topics that we discussed last week during the stage 1 debate on the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Bill. During the Justice Committee’s consideration of that bill, it was made clear that there is concern about the projected losses of civilian staff.

I start with a comment on the terminology that has been used in this debate. We must be careful not to take as black and white the distinction between front-line and back-office staff. A bobby on the beat can easily be seen as front line, whereas a member of the human resources staff is clearly back office, but in between, the distinction is much less clear cut. Much valuable investigative work can be done while sitting at a desk. I am sure that most of us would not consider people with roles such as forensic scientist, information technology expert or money laundering specialist to be back-office staff. The conclusion that we must draw is that it is dangerous to label all non police officers as carrying out administrative functions and to treat them all in the same way.

Let us not forget that the reason why we are having this debate is that the Scottish Government is looking at how the public sector can be reformed to enable it to deliver better value for money. When public finances are under such extreme pressure, it is appropriate that we look to cut duplication and unnecessary costs across Scotland’s police forces. Nevertheless, the Government has set a target of £88 million of savings as part of its plans for a single police force and it plans to save £50.3 million in staff costs. Those cuts are certainly challenging, and it remains to be seen whether they can be delivered without adversely affecting front-line services.

The priority of the Scottish Conservatives is to provide an effective, visible and local police service and to do so by sustaining in service the extra 1,000 police officers whom we have secured over the past five years. As I have mentioned before, civilian staff can and do play a key role in Scotland’s forces and, in many instances, civilian staff find themselves with a direct role in policing. There is a need for a balanced workforce, and both police officers and police staff have a role to play in that. The

“right people with the right skills must be doing the right jobs.”—[Official Report, Justice Committee, 28 February 2012; c 972.]

It would be madness if we were to get into a situation in which police officers did not do their jobs but instead fulfilled back-office functions.

During the Justice Committee’s consideration of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Bill, Calum Steele, who is secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, asserted that there has historically been a considerable rise in civilian posts in Scotland. He said:

“That is undoubtedly a consequence in some ways of how the police service has evolved, but it would be beyond the pale to suggest that those levels of growth were a consequence of essential civilianisation where it took place. I am sure that many roles were undertaken and created not because they were essential, but because they were desirable or nice to have.”—[Official Report, Justice Committee, 28 February 2012; c 1009.]

The historical statistics show that, since 1997, police staff levels have risen by 51 per cent compared with a rise in the number of police officers that amounts to 14 per cent. Civilianisation peaked in 2007, when 32 per cent of those who were employed by the police were civilian staff. That has now fallen to 28 per cent, which is the 2004 level. Arguably, therefore, recent reductions in civilian staff represent a sensible decrease in staff levels, which had become bloated since 2007. Mr Steele cited a number of existing civilian positions, including change manager, business manager and performance manager, and said that he was unclear whether they are essential to the delivery of policing.

If we have to choose between such postholders and front-line police officers, I know which I would prefer, but let us not forget that there is an irreducible minimum below which we must not fall. That is the issue that is before us today. That is why we accept the basic proposition in the amendment that the Government has lodged, but we believe that we must keep the overall staff reduction picture under review.

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Meeting of the Parliament 17 May 2012

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