Police Scotland sells property to fill capital budget gap

Calum Steele

Police Scotland is using the sale of cars and extra property to help fund its activities after its capital budget was slashed.

Figures put before the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) show that the single force’s capital funding from the Scottish government has been reduced from £40 million in 2015/16 to £22m.

This year it will retain £5.8m raised from the sale of property, which will go towards expenditure.

Staff associations said the measure was necessary as a result of the squeeze on police finances while the single force itself said it was normal practice.

The national force, whose annual revenue budge is about £1 billion, must make savings of £1.1bn by 2026.

Its capital budget, which is used on vehicles, IT, its building estate, forensics and other areas, is £22m for 2017/18 and comprises a £16.2m government grant and capital receipts worth £5.8m.

In the report to the SPA, the single force details how it has already saved £2m, which will be used on vehicles and a solicitor consultation room, but adds that fleet expenditure will be “curtailed” and kept to replacements for “accidental write offs”.

Calum Steele, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, said: “The buildings and the IT infrastructure across the police service is in a shocking state of repair, arguably neglected under the watch of the previous forces.

“It’s unfair in the extreme to expect the new police service to rectify the failures of others with a significantly reduced capital budget.”

Niven Rennie, president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, added: “One of our major issues is the estate that Police Scotland has inherited. A lot of its is crumbling.

“There needs to be major investment. I’ve been saying for some time that the fixation on police officer numbers left little money to attend to the other issues, especially when the capital budget is being cut.

“They have to find some way of improving the infrastructure. If retaining capital receipts is a way of doing that, then that’s to be welcomed.”

Chief Superintendent Billy Gordon, of Police Scotland, said: “Police Scotland continues to review its estate as part of its wider estates strategy.

“Making the best use of our buildings is an ongoing process as we create a sustainable operating model for our service. We provide regular updates on our estate and estates strategy to the SPA for their approval.”

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