Meeting of the Parliament 11 February 2026 [Draft]
I remind members of my declaration in the register of members’ interests that my wife is a police sergeant in Moray.
I always come to debates on this topic keen to praise the efforts of our hard-working and dedicated officers locally and across Scotland while seeking to contribute their views to the debate. A number of points that I will raise have come directly from officers who are concerned.
However, if those officers are watching the debate or intend to catch up later, they should be aware of their Government’s position. I want to make it very clear what the SNP is asking MSPs to vote for tonight—and I will give way to Angela Constance if she would like to explain her reasoning. The Government’s amendment deletes wording from the motion, and I am not sure what is wrong with that wording because it is 100 per cent factually correct.
Why does the justice secretary and the SNP Government want to delete the sentence that says that the Parliament
“regrets that cuts to police officer numbers have disproportionately fallen on local divisions, reducing the number of officers on the frontline”?
Will the cabinet secretary explain her rationale for deleting that? We know that what it says about officer numbers is true, so does the SNP justice secretary not regret the falling number of police officers on the front line?
Angela Constance is not looking at me and does not want to engage in a debate, but I am using my four minutes to offer a debate, so I ask the justice secretary again—