Police Scotland officers worked over a million hours of overtime last year, the Scottish Conservatives can reveal.
A Freedom of Information Request by the party shows that officers worked 1,074,545 hours of overtime in 2021/22, the equivalent of 123 years worth.
That was more than double the amount of overtime worked by officers in the previous year. It also represents more than three per cent of the total hours worked by those serving in Police Scotland.
The startling figures comes as Police Scotland officers continue to withdraw goodwill after an “insulting” pay offer from the SNP Government.
Officers will no longer work overtime unless explicitly asked to- and they will charge for doing so. They are doing this to safeguard officer’s health and wellbeing as police are increasingly suffering with stress and mental health problems.
Scotland’s Chief Constable has also said policing is not a priority for the SNP Government.
Shadow Justice Secretary Jamie Greene says the SNP’s neglect of Scotland’s police is now threatening up to a million hours of officers work if the current dispute continues and increases the threat of violent crime rising even further.
He praised hardworking police officers for going above and beyond to protect the public and accused the SNP Government for endangering the police’s goodwill through “broken promises”.
Scottish Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Justice Jamie Greene MSP, said: “These figures are testament to the dedication our hardworking police officers show to keeping the public safe. I thank every single officer for their service to our communities.
“Shamefully, this hard work they carry out every single day is now being endangered by an SNP Government who have insulted police officers with a derisory pay offer. That has left officers with no choice but to withdraw their goodwill.
“These findings show that is now threatening over one million hours of time that would usually be spent keeping the public safe. It is shocking that the SNP have let their relations with the police hit rock-bottom.
“SNP Ministers should be boosting police numbers to reduce the burden on current officers who are already overworked and stressed, but instead they have let officer numbers fall to their lowest level since 2008.
“Not only have they delivered insulting pay offers to our officers, SNP ministers have also broken their promise to protect police funding in the years ahead. That clearly shows keeping the public safe is no longer a priority for the SNP Government.
“The Scottish Conservatives will always prioritise keeping the public safe – which is why we would back the police with the funding and pay offers they deserve.”
Notes
Police officers worked over one million hours in overtime last year – double the previous year. In 2021-22, officers in Police Scotland worked 1,074,545 hours of overtime – 3.1% of total hours worked. In 2020-21, 464,049.75 overtime hours were worked – or 1.3% of total hours worked. (Police Scotland FOI, 8 July 2022, Available on request).
The Scottish Police Federation described the SNP Government’s pay offer as ‘derisory’. Calum Steele of the Scottish Police Federation said ‘be in no doubt that the willingness of the police service to simply stand back and accept this derisory offer at a time that other bodies and other workers will be taking much more action than we are capable of doing - the notion that we are going to accept that and stay silent is simply a fantasy.’ (BBC News, 12 June 2022, link).
Sir Iain Livingstone, Chief Constable of Police Scotland, said policing is not one of the SNP Government’s priorities. Iain Livingstone told the Scottish Police Authority that the Scottish Government ‘clearly set out its spending priorities…policing is not among those stated priorities’ (SNP Manifesto 2021, April 2021, link; The Scottish Sun, 23 June 2022, link).
Police officers cannot strike but are withdrawing goodwill working in response to this bad offer. The withdrawal of goodwill means officers will not begin shifts early, end their shifts at the rostered time unless expressly told to work late, charging for every period of overtime, not taking personal protective equipment home at the end of the day and not taking Airwave radios home. (BBC News, 1 July 2022, link).
The Scottish Police Federation said officers are incandescent about the latest pay offer and their withdrawal of goodwill working is the most overt demonstration of action in over 100 years. Calum Steele wrote in the Daily Mail: ‘Officers are incandescent at the current pay offer. They are beyond angry at how insulting it is. It is disrespectful of the job they do and the sacrifices they make… It is the most significant discontent in the police service since the 1970s, and the most overt demonstration of action by our members in more than 100 years.’ (Scottish Daily Mail, 30 June 2022).