Meeting of the Parliament 10 November 2015
I will deal with the two valid issues that Elaine Murray raises—first, the difficulties that the contact, command and control call centres are having at present with the police gazetteer system. The HMICS report highlights that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the Scottish Ambulance Service each have a gazetteer system, and it recommends that we should look at bringing the three systems together to provide a much more comprehensive system for delivering blue-light services in Scotland. I intend to ensure that that recommendation is progressed across those services.
As I said in my statement, there is an issue in that staff feel that Police Scotland did not engage with them properly in taking forward the reform. Too much of the process was dealt with by email and through the internet, and that is not acceptable.
I have made it very clear to Police Scotland that investing in staff is as important as—if not more important than—investing in IT systems. I want to ensure that the issues that the report highlights and the recommendations for addressing them, alongside the findings from the Police Scotland staff survey, are all addressed so that staff are much more effectively engaged in the process.
The mechanism that Police Scotland is putting in place will assist staff to support that work. I want to see improvements in the areas that the member has highlighted to make sure that the valued voices of members of staff in Police Scotland can be heard and listened to.