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All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 1639 contributions
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 11 September 2024
Russell Findlay
To come back to that point, it is not just a delay from September to March—it has been a delay of more than 10 years. We have the only police force in the United Kingdom without body-worn cameras.
At some point, somebody from the police put a figure of £25 million on the cost, against an annual policing spend of £1.6 billion. The delay seems unacceptable. It was only when the chief constable came to this committee for the first time that we discovered that eight separate computer systems from the legacy forces were still operating. The SPA seems to have completely taken its eye off the ball. Where Police Scotland’s management has failed, surely it is the SPA’s job to ensure that Police Scotland gets it right.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 11 September 2024
Russell Findlay
Was the survey not previously annual?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 11 September 2024
Russell Findlay
Is it Vivup that provides the employee assistance programme?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 11 September 2024
Russell Findlay
That is an Essex-based limited company called SME HCI Ltd. It describes itself as an “employee benefits programme”. What are the costs and durations of both those contracts? Critically, what kind of formal assessment is being conducted to see if they are effective and value for money?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 11 September 2024
Russell Findlay
I have a final quick question. The SPF’s submission says that an officer who was seconded from A division—which, I believe, covers Ayrshire—into a suicide prevention role is no longer in that role. Do you know why?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 11 September 2024
Russell Findlay
Absolutely. Thank you.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 11 September 2024
Russell Findlay
Okay. Thank you.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 11 September 2024
Russell Findlay
How long are the contracts for?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 11 September 2024
Russell Findlay
When I first raised the tragedy of police officer suicides, the committee was surprised and concerned that they were not being recorded. They had not been quantified or measured in any way whatsoever. Then, last year, an assistant chief constable came to the committee and told us that five officers had died in three years. That information was based on doing “a manual trawl”—to use his exact words—of the databases. In today’s submission, Police Scotland has said that, in the 11 years since its formation, there have been 20 suicides and that that data has come from National Records of Scotland. How confident are you, collectively, of the accuracy of that number and that being the sole source of the data? How many of those 20 officers’ deaths were subject to fatal accident inquiries?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 11 September 2024
Russell Findlay
The SPA also said that it had asked Police Scotland whether work-related matters were potentially a contributing factor in relation to any of the deaths that were known about and that it was satisfied with Police Scotland’s response, which is that they were not a factor. However, the families of officers who died tell me that those very much were a contributing factor. In the light of that, will the SPA look at the matter again? I ask not least because it looks as though there has not been a fatal accident inquiry for any of those tragic deaths.
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