Seòmar agus comataidhean

Did you say that we should have 16,600 officers?

That is a budgeted establishment. Is that the same as required levels? Do you think that you need more officers?

I will come back to staffing levels. We already know that policing levels are at their lowest since 2007. We heard from witnesses on the previous panel about the challenges that they currently face. We heard from DCC Alan Speirs that staffing levels are budgeted at 16,600 officers, which is Police Scotland’s target. What levels do you see as being sufficient, and do you have any concerns about the upcoming budget?

Good morning and thanks for coming. My first question is a query on the budgets. The FBU submission says that the capital budget is increasing by £10.3 million and that the real-term revenue increase is £9.1 million after deducting £4.4 million for the previous year’s settlement. The SFRS submission says that the revenue has a cash uplift of £9.5 million after deducting £4.1 million for the previous year’s pay settlement. There are slight differences in the figures, but the SFRS submission says that you are still faced with making further savings of approximately £4 million in 2024-25 to offset pressures from staff pay awards and non-pay inflation. Can you clarify that there was not an actual real-terms increase and that you still had to make cuts?

Dave Crawford, do you want to come in on that?

We heard earlier from the FBU about its “Firestorm” report. It was quite good that it said that you gave it the same weighting as you would a report from the HM fire service inspectorate in Scotland.

In April 2024, the SFRS published a three-year delivery plan covering 2024-25 to 2026-27, and, in December 2021, it published its long-term vision for the next 10 years. Do you have an action plan with tasks and timescales for their completion? We have heard about long-term plans in response to an earlier question. What progress has been made, and how much engagement and support are you getting from the Scottish Government?

I have a quick question, convener.

How much engagement do you have with the Scottish Government on that?

What are the timescales? I am wondering about the £800 million that you said that you needed for the capital budget. Is there a lot of slippage when it comes to dealing with stations that do not have running water for example?

I will come back in later, then.