Change to prioritise frontline policing

Criminal Justice Committee pre-budget evidence session
Along with Deputy Chief Constable Jane Connors and Chief Financial Officer James Gray, I provided evidence about our budget proposal for next year during an evidence session at the Scottish Parliament's Criminal Justice Committee on Wednesday, 30 October.

Key points of the submission on our budget requirement for 2025-26 include:
£59.1 million of additional core revenue funding to fund public sector pay assumptions, specific inflationary pressures and the impact of new legislation, primarily the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021 and the Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill.
Reform funding to be maintained at ~£25 million to support change and transformation.
An increased capital allocation of £83 million to deliver our basic rolling replacement programme including the replacement of fleet, systems and policing equipment; to support delivery of the estates masterplan to maintain and upgrade properties; investment in Change and Transformation, including technology, data, process automation, supporting Al and innovation, and spend to save initiatives.
A move towards more appropriate future funding arrangements such as securing multi-year funding commitments from Scottish Government, the exercise of statutory borrowing powers and the establishment of a facility to enable the carry forward of financial reserves.

Since the evidence session and following the UK Autumn budget, we have built in a further £25.3 million ask to fund additional National Insurance costs.
Discussions with Scottish Government are ongoing across all of these areas and I look forward to the outcome of Scottish Government funding considerations in the coming weeks.

Force Mobilisation Model
I have been clear about the need to prioritise frontline services and a model to deliver enhanced resourcing, particularly around events, is being developed at pace.
The Force Mobilisation Model applies to officers who work Monday to Friday and will combine a seven-day shift pattern with a demand-led operational deployment mechanism, which would include officers working 10 operational frontline deployments a year. These deployments will include two to three predetermined high demand days, for example Hogmanay and Bonfire Night, in order to spread the burden of policing events.
The mobilisation model will improve officer wellbeing through reducing cancelled rest days for frontline officers and improve service to communities by minimising officer abstractions.
An informal survey on a preferred shift pattern has recently concluded and we are now beginning the formal consultation process with officers. Future work in this space will review other non-seven day working business areas.