Lothian Tory MSP Sue Webber raises issue of Edinburgh police numbers at General Questions in Scottish Parliament 08-02-24, Justice Secretary Angela Constance replies
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00:00 To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the most recent Police Scotland officer
00:06 and staff numbers statistics showing the number of police officers in Police Scotland's
00:11 Edinburgh division.
00:16 The latest statistics on police officer numbers were published earlier this week, showing
00:21 that there were 48 more officers deployed in Edinburgh as of 31 December compared to
00:27 the same point in 2022. Additionally, the city's E division is able to access specialist
00:34 regional and national expertise when required to meet demand.
00:40 I very much welcome the chief constable's commitment to restarting officer recruitment
00:45 in March following the positive budget settlement for policing in the draft 2024-25 budget.
00:52 That means that the chief constable will have more officers available to deploy, on top
00:58 of the almost 1,480 officers who have been recruited since the beginning of 2022.
01:09 Since the Scottish National Party Government decided to merge Scotland's police forces
01:12 into one, it has had a devastating impact on the visible footprint of police officers
01:18 in our communities. Despite the cabinet secretary's response, in the Edinburgh police division
01:24 alone there has been a drop of 76 officers—more than one in 20 officers—being lost in just
01:30 over a decade. It is no wonder that recorded violent crimes in Edinburgh have increased
01:35 by 10 per cent in just the last year alone. Why has the Scottish National Party Government
01:40 left our hard-working police to fend for themselves in the face of rising violent crime?
01:47 As I am sure the member is well aware, since this Government took office in 2007, Scotland
01:57 is now safer. Recorded crime is at one of the historic lows since 1974. Since this Government
02:05 took office, there has been a decrease in recorded crime by 40 per cent. I remind the
02:12 member that our police officers remain the best paid in the UK and that we continue to
02:19 have more hard-working police officers now than we did in 2007.