SCOTTISH
POLICE FEDERATION
5 Woodside Place, Glasgow, G3 7QF
MEDIA
RELEASE
The Scottish Police Federation represents all police officers in the
ranks of chief inspector and below, about 16,000 people, over 98%
of all police officers in Scotland.
To:
Date:
Subject: |
Lucy
Adams, The Herald
Wednesday
21 September 2005
Police
Overtime Costs 2004/2005 |
Under
the freedom of information act, The Herald has learned that overtime
payments to the police in Scotland in 2004/2005 amounted to £43m.
Asked to comment, Douglas Keil, General Secretary of the Scottish
Police Federation said,
“To
some extent these figures highlight problems caused by a shortage
of police officers. But overtime can be the most cost effective way
of meeting an operational need.
It
is a lot of money but then the police do a lot of important and unpredictable
work. Some of this overtime is incurred because officers are brought
in to cover for shortages which would not occur were there sufficient
officers in the first place.
Other
overtime payments are necessary because particular individuals with
specific skills are required to do certain jobs. There is the question
of whether we have enough of these specialists but overtime payments
in this regard cannot be entirely avoided.
Significant
amounts of overtime are incurred in relation to officers appearing
in court on their days off. We agree improvements could be made in
the management of court cases and there is work being done by the
police and the Crown in this area.
We
will never eradicate the need for overtime payments but you have to
ask whether it is right that these officers are being asked to work
such long hours and how that impacts on their work-life balance.”
