The SNP Government have doubled down on their position that justice is “no longer a priority”, by announcing a series of real-terms cuts to justice funding in their Spending Review.
Police Scotland have been handed a real-terms cut of eight per cent despite rising levels of violent crime, prompting Scottish Police Federation General Secretary Calum Steele to accuse the SNP of breaking their manifesto commitments.
The Fire Brigade Union has warned that both firefighters and the communities they serve are being put in “greater danger” due to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service budget being frozen in cash terms.
Scotland’s courts will also be left to handle a backlog of almost 41,000 cases with a significant real-terms funding cut, despite the number of cases being heard yet to return to pre-Covid levels.
The funding settlement bears out the SNP Government’s warning that “justice is no longer a priority”, which was revealed in a note to the executive team at the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service. The Scottish Conservatives obtained the note earlier this year via a freedom of information request
Yet, despite the eye-watering real-terms cuts imposed on police, the fire service and courts, the SNP Government have still found £20 million for another divisive independence referendum.
The Scottish Conservatives have slammed the SNP for putting their nationalist agenda ahead of the real issues facing Scotland's public services.
Scottish Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Justice Jamie Greene MSP, said: “For once, the SNP are being true to their word, because it’s abundantly clear from their Spending Review that justice is no longer a priority for them.
“Freezing the budgets across the justice portfolio amounts to a huge real-terms cut at a time of high inflation.
“No wonder the Scottish Police Federation described Kate Forbes’ announcement as marking ‘a bad day for the public, a good one for criminals’. Already, violent crime is rising and police numbers falling – and that’s only likely to continue with these savage cuts.
“On top of a measly pay offer to officers and an earlier cut to their capital budget, is it any wonder that morale is so low in Police Scotland?
“The same real-terms cut applies to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, and, again, lives will be put at risk as result.
“Scotland’s huge backlog of court cases is only likely to increase – when it needs to be reduced – as a result of this devastating spending settlement.
“The SNP’s contempt for justice is laid bare in this brutal and unacceptable Spending Review. What makes it all the more galling for the staff who will have to swallow these cuts is that the SNP Government still found £20 million to siphon off for spending on a divisive, self-serving independence referendum that the majority of Scots don’t want.”
Notes
The courts were told by the SNP Government that the justice portfolio was no longer a priority. A freedom of information response from the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service revealed they were told ‘we have not received any indications from Scottish Government other than Justice is no longer a priority work stream in 2022-23’. (Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, Freedom of information response: 1b Budget Template Guidance, 8 February 2022, available on request).