Number one story today and many times today, the Scottish Police Authority wants more money despite getting twice as big an increase as they had expected. Typically, the reporting has virtually no context to help us understand what it means for our lived experience. Here are some data that might make you feel a bit more secure:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2018-19/pages/4/
Scotland’s Chief Statistician has published statistics on Police Officer Quarterly Strength, which gives the number of full-time equivalent police officers employed by Police Scotland. The key findings of the statistics are:
there were 17,256 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers in Scotland on 30 September 2019
police officer numbers increased by 108 FTE officers (+0.6%) in the last year from 30 September 2018
an increase of 1,022 FTE police officers (+6.3%) from the 16,234 FTE police officers recorded at 31 March 2007
https://news.gov.scot/news/police-officer-quarterly-strength-statistics-scotland-30-september-2019
Scotland’s police officers received a 6.5% 31-month pay deal, announced in September 2018 and described by the Scottish Police Federation as the greatest single increase in police pay for over 20 years; This compared with 2% for English and Welsh officers in 2018 and 2.5% in 2019. The basic starting salary for new constables in Scotland is £26,037, in contrast to £20,880 in England and Wales.
https://news.gov.scot/news/policing-in-scotland
OK, nothing there for the wee news rodents. What about absence due to stress?
Oh.
I know! What about public satisfaction with Police Scotland?
Oh.
Assaults ON police officers!?
Nuff?
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Could there be a budget in the offing , oh wait……..
LikeLiked by 1 person
His name should read “Re(evil)” not “Re(evel)”.
Oh, wait……
LikeLiked by 1 person
If it wasn’t complaining about getting too much money in the budget, then a “spokesperson for the police federation” would be whining about the queues in the canteen—“too muny bliddy polis in this station” !
!Oh, to be in England, now the cuts are here”!
LikeLiked by 1 person
There’s a rather complex story being carried by beeb Scotland about the Scottish Funding Council recouping £119,000 of grant previously given to Aberdeen University. The funding has been pulled back due to highly questionable (and lacking transparency) retirement payment arrangements made with the former University Principal. (Naturally – once expensively ‘retired’ the individual concerned takes up another ‘big job’ – this time heading up the UK Statistics Authority.)
To my mind the most salient (and encouraging) issue is that the Scottish Funding Council (backed hard by the Cabinet Secretary) are, finally, daring to question things and ruffle some feathers. For far, far, too long the Scottish Universities’ senior management teams have been able to arrange these remuneration packages to, seemingly, suit themselves with no obvious scrutiny or accountability in place. Here’s hoping this might be the start of a trend. The Aberdeen Evening Express version is rather better delineated than the beeb’s messy reportage. Link and snippets below:
https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/news/scotland/university-repays-more-than-100000-over-settlement-with-former-principal/
The University of Aberdeen confirmed £119,000 has been handed over (returned to the Scottish Funding Council) following a review of the settlement agreed with Professor Sir Ian Diamond.
Sir Ian, who first revealed his intention to retire in August 2017, received £610,000 in remuneration for 2017-18, as well as a £60,000 payment for “outplacement support”.
(NOTE: He became chief executive of the UK Statistics Authority after he retired from the university).
The SFC said it had decided to review the payment “because the financial statements did not appear to accord with our understanding of the principal’s retirement and we were not satisfied with the university’s response to our initial inquiries”.
It found that when it came to approving the terms of the settlement agreement there was no “documented assessment of value for money”.
The University of Aberdeen paid for two principals in 2018-19, it was noted, with Sir Ian on “gardening leave” while his successor was in place.
The SFC said: “By defining the former principal’s ‘formal’ notice date as the date immediately preceding both the successor principal taking up his post and the former principal moving to a 12-month period of ‘gardening leave’, the university incurred the cost of two principals over the 2018-19 financial year.
“In addition, over the 2017-18 financial year, the principal received his full salary while having significantly fewer duties and responsibilities than those constituting the full role of principal, and we have seen no evidence that the value for money consequences of that arrangement were assessed.”
Higher education minister Richard Lochhead said it was “clearly unacceptable that the University of Aberdeen did not meet its grant conditions, nor the highest standards of transparency that we expect of organisations which benefit from public funds”.
He said: “The report finds that payments were made to Professor Diamond without appropriate approvals and without documented assessment of value for money.
“I do not believe the impact should be borne by the student or staff bodies and I therefore urge the university to consider whether it can recoup these funds.” (ie get the dough back from the retired Prof. Sir Ian Diamond – should we hold our collective breath? – always worth asking, I suppose.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
hmph, classic case of jobs for the boys there. No wonder so many high heid yins want to avoid a ‘fairer’ independent Scotland. We should be promoting a Scotland rife with cronyism and elitist corruption, in fact, lets promise a special Scottish House of Lords and honours list and tax ‘breaks’ and everything free for the already rich and powerful – they believe they are oh so much more deserving and entitled than everyone else (‘value for money’ my backside). Then, once we have independence in the bag, we can do none of it and say ‘what promises?’,,, I believe that’s how it’s done, isn’t it?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like this one. Left my former employer having reported the principal for wasting public funds going to seychelles to ‘recruit students.’
LikeLike
Nice one 🙂
LikeLike
The 1st anniversary of the opening of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Road has seen stats released which demonstrate an even greater reduction in HGV traffic on the target routes than was anticipated. This massive project was edged into place by the SNP Scottish Govt in the teeth of massive political opposition from ALL the usual suspects. (Proof positive that ‘smart’ road building projects can deliver green benefits and economic benefits at the same time – these ‘goods’ are not, necessarily, mutually exclusive). Link and snippets below:
https://www.grampianonline.co.uk/news/msp-welcomes-traffic-figures-on-the-anniversary-of-the-awpr-opening-191822/
Transport Scotland has released an informational snapshot on the first anniversary of the AWPR fully opening to traffic (February 19) indicating that HGV traffic has significantly reduced on the A92 (previously the A90) since the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route/Balmedie to Tipperty (AWPR/B-T) project fully opened to traffic.
Depending on the location, HGV traffic along the A92 corridor through Aberdeen has reduced between 49 per cent and 61 per cent when comparing January to June 2019 data with comparable 2014 data.
This reduction is greater than the 20 to 36 per cent reduction originally predicted and suggests that the AWPR/B-T may be more successful than anticipated in attracting HGV traffic from the local road network.
Welcoming the news Gillian Martin MSP said: “The opening of the AWPR last year has been a huge investment for the north-east, reducing pollution and cutting journey times for commuters.
“The biggest positive has been reduced congestion, and this will have health and safety benefits, as well as making a real difference to people’s work life balance, and I say that as someone who commuted into Aberdeen from the ‘shire for over twenty years!”
LikeLike
I tried to pay attention to the report on Radio Scotland GMS, but I couldn’t make head nor tail of it, ‘unsustainable deficit year on year or monthly unsustainable deficit big number deficit unsustainable’. Well that’s what is sounded like to me. They were muttering something about IT systems and non-police police people – I’m guessing that’s actually what the police authority were moaning about, wanting a big hand-out to upgrade their IT. Well, the fire service have managed, and done more, and are probably more deserving of hand outs to upgrade their fleet, so the polis can start bucking up. I suspect they still need a bit of clearing out of the top ranks and the institutionalised.
I didn’t really pay attention, so it could have been something completely different!
LikeLike
Re your article on the Police Budget issues, it shows that a new constable in Scotland is paid £5157 pa (24.7%) more than the equivalent in England & Wales. Could this be the reason for the friction between the Scottish & UK Gov’ts over the policing costs for COP26? The UK Gov thinks the Scot Gov is trying to rip them off by overcharging for Police, but it’s a safe bet UK Gov has no notion(or interest in the fact) that we value our police 24.7% higher than they do in England. Yet another UK Dividend? If they shut Holyrood down they’d no doubt try to cut our police wages to the E&W level.
LikeLike