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I get that. Sorry—this is just for my benefit after taking at face value what I read in the story.

I presume that the decision was one that only the ministers could make, because the written-off finances will presumably be backfilled by the Scottish Government. I understand that it is not a decision that you could make. However, prior to the decision being made, was the SPPA seeking to recover overpayments, were any overpayments recovered, and will any of that money be refunded—because, in that sense, it is a U-turn from your original position to where you are now?

Thank you for that update.

In the letter from the Minister for Public Finance, I noticed talk of extra resource that you received from the Scottish Government—including mention of the recruitment of 100 extra staff. What does that take your total staffing levels to, and why is there a need for so many people? Is it simply to deal with the McCloud remedy issue, or are there other requirements?

You did, thank you. I mentioned staffing because there was a 25 per cent jump over a short period of time, which seems unusual. I would understand if that had to happen for a short period of time and if contractors had to be brought in to help with the additional workload, but for an agency that is publicly funded, that was a substantial jump in the staff baseline. I am trying to get my head around whether you are expecting the number to come back down again or whether there has been a general increase in workload.

I appreciate that. I made a plug for my local police station, which I had to do in our final evidence session.

That might be part of it, but it is not solely related to that.

Yes, we are quite short on time. That £40 million increase in capital is fascinating. In that exact period when it was £45 million per year, I was jumping up and down asking for a new police station in Greenock, but the answer from Police Scotland was, “If we get more money from the Government, we will do it.” Four years later, Police Scotland has more money from the Government, but is not doing it—I could go through the paper trail on that for another hour.

It seems that, even when capital is made available to Police Scotland, officers are still working in 50 or 70-year-old crumbling buildings that do not, for example, have custody capacity. That has an operational impact on their day-to-day jobs. I do not see how what the Government is saying about there being huge amounts of capital cash matches up with the £300 million backlog in estate maintenance and crumbling buildings. Why is there such a mismatch?

That is very welcome. It talks to the wider point about resource planning, which was the premise of my original question, and the sorts of activities that Police Scotland is required to undertake.

At the beginning of the meeting, we talked about police officers linked arm in arm in a football stadium, dealing with thugs. On the other hand, we are talking about intercepting major international serious criminal gangs, using technology, which, I imagine, uses a very different skill set. That goes back to my original question, about your workforce planning, which, unfortunately, was criticised in the Audit Scotland report. When will we see your workforce plan? When will Audit Scotland and the future committees of this Parliament get some comfort that Police Scotland knows exactly what sort of people it needs, how many and when?

There is a perfect storm. You are losing people at the end of their careers who have been around a long time and have a lot of knowledge and expertise; some are retiring early; a large number are retiring due to ill health, which we have some statistics on; and a younger generation is coming in and are working for only five or 10 years, so they are not getting the cross-discipline experience that they would have got years ago. An officer might have served for two or three years in one unit, before moving to another unit. They would have continued to move around for 25 or 30 years. That is not happening at the same rate at the moment. Surely the inexperience has an operational impact on what policing looks and feels like.

I am interested in the intelligence work that you undertake, although I do not expect you to go into any operational details. Some points have been made about the types of organisations and groups that are infiltrating football matches. I find it difficult to believe that these are not premeditated and pre-planned activities. What work is Police Scotland doing ahead of games to monitor Facebook groups, WhatsApp groups and other closed networks, where such activities are clearly being co-ordinated en masse in advance of matches?

Thank you very much for that comprehensive answer. I am not entirely sure that it answered the question, which was about whether your current police officer numbers are at the right level. That is not a criticism; I would just like us to get an idea of that. I appreciate that there is churn.