Broke Police Scotland blow millions on 'diversity'

• Cash-strapped force spend money despite being unable to investigate all crimes due to budget cuts 

Scotland’s cash-strapped police force has spent millions on diversity staff despite being unable to investigate all crimes due to budget cuts.

Amid plummeting public confidence in Police Scotland and senior officers being forced to make ‘hard choices’ over dwindling resources, a total of £2.4million has been spent on equality and diversity roles.

In addition, more than £200,000 has been paid to external organisations for training over the past five years.

Last year, the force said it would no longer investigate every crime reported. Under a new policy in the North-East, rank-and-file officers were told not to follow up on minor crimes such as some break-ins and thefts where there are no leads or CCTV evidence.

Police Scotland said it would no longer investigate every crime reported

Police Scotland said the policy would free up time for officers to focus on responding to ‘more pressing issues’ and it stressed that ‘hard choices’ were being made in order to deliver effective policing within its stretched budget.

Critics hit out yesterday at the millions spent on diversity staff and training at a time when bodycams have not yet been rolled out to officers in Scotland.

Russell Findlay, justice spokesman for the Scottish Tories, said: ‘While it’s vital Police Scotland reflects society, frontline officers deprived of basic equipment due to SNP cuts might question the millions of pounds spent in these areas.

‘This is especially true as not all crimes will be investigated and officer numbers are at their lowest in 16 years.’

David Kennedy, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation which represents rank-and-file officers, said: ‘The service has faced severe criticism regarding equality issues and it’s understandable that they want to invest in training, however, these figures are a real cause for concern – the amount and value of what training has been provided has to be questioned.’

The force, whose former chief constable Iain Livingstone last year described it as institutionally racist, is now spending more than £500,000 annually on the diversity staff.

New Chief Constable Jo Farrell is under pressure to review whether the spending is worthwhile at a time of extremely tight budgets.

The huge outlay on diversity staff, which was revealed through freedom of information, comes as the single police force faces a budget crisis.

In the run-up to this year’s Scottish Budget, Ms Farrell called on Holyrood to provide an extra £128million next year so the force can maintain ‘a visible, accessible and proactive front line’.

But Justice Secretary Angela Constance provided a rise of just £92.7million, telling the public that ‘despite deeply challenging financial circumstances’, the Scottish Government had provided Police Scotland with ‘record’ funding of £1.55billion for 2024/25.

In August last year, police chiefs admitted the 2023/24 budget was a ‘real-terms reduction’ – which meant ‘more than £50million of savings are required to ensure a balanced budget’.

In 2019/20 taxpayers were forking out £372,213 a year on equality, diversity and inclusion staff, Police Scotland revealed in their freedom of information response.

But the amount since then has shot up by more than 44per cent: in 2022/23, the last full financial year reported, £589,611 was paid out, and from April 2023 to the end of February 2024, it was £538,938.

In total, from April 2019 to the end of February this year, the figures show taxpayers shelled out £2,397,416 on the equality roles.

Mr Kennedy added: ‘Given the financial pressures facing the service over the last few years with the lack of money to recruit actual police officers, the proportionate response to crime, the lack of face-to-face training regarding changing legislation, there has to be an urgent review that the money being allocated is proportionate to its actual worth.’

Contained in the figures was the revelation that Police Scotland also spent £202,386 on training and materials between April 2019 and the end of February this year.

The highest annual sum was in 2022/23 when it paid £85,265 to three companies to deliver equality training. Between April 2023 and the end of February this year, the force has spent £44,602.

A Police Scotland spokesman said that ‘publicly acknowledging institutional discrimination exists is essential to our absolute commitment to championing equality and becoming an anti-discriminatory service’.

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