Look ahead to bravery awards during public update
Scotland’s Chief Constable Jo Farrell has praised the bravery and contribution of officers, staff, volunteers, and police animals ahead of her annual bravery awards.
During a public update to the Scottish Police Authority in Glasgow, Chief Constable Farrell also thanked members of the public for their support.
Chief Constable Farrell said: “Listening to examples of the bravery, professionalism, and skill of police officers, staff, and volunteers, and the relationship of trust and support they have with our communities is an uplifting part of leading Police Scotland.
“There is a hero made every day in policing.
“I look forward to meeting some of those who have demonstrated the best of policing at my annual bravery and excellence awards next week and, this year, it is hugely positive we will also recognise the contribution of police animals.”
Details of the meeting are available on the SPA website and the Chief Constable’s written report can be read here.
The Chief’s verbal update is below -
In my first report of 2026, I want to recognise and thank the police officers, staff, and volunteers who delivered for communities throughout the festive period and into the new year.
Policing continued to prevent, detect, and investigate crime, and secure criminal justice outcomes including the seizure of drugs with an estimated street value of £24m during December, as well as the conviction of a sex offender who abducted and drugged his victim, following tenacious work by officers.
Last week, four men were convicted of serious organised crime offences linked to Operation Portaledge - the ongoing investigation into violent incidents in the East and West of the country.
My report outlines convictions in relation to culpable homicides and highlights an ongoing appeal for information as part of the investigation into the murder of Jordan Gray in Motherwell in December.
Policing also worked closely with partners to deliver a multi-agency response during the prolonged period of adverse weather at the beginning of the year, highlighting our co-ordinating role in whole system resilience.
I want to thank local authorities, health colleagues, agencies including the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, the Met Office, and HM Coastguard, as well as third sector organisations and the general public for the cohesion demonstrated.
Communities came together to share support and help, transporting healthcare workers into communities and hospitals so care could continue as far as possible or by clearing roads.
This month, I report on the outcomes of our festive drink and drug driving enforcement campaign which we operated during December and into January and during which more than 3,500 drink and drug driving tests were carried out by Police Scotland officers.
Driving while unfit through drink or drugs results in deaths and my clear message is do not drive having taken drink or drugs. Officers are on our road networks every day as we work with partners to reduce the devastating effects of road fatalities and serious injuries.
I also outline important motorcyclist education courses which are delivered in partnership with I Am Road Smart Scotland.
My report details the challenging, at times dangerous, work police officers do to keep communities safe, including work which culminated in a man who tried to murder officers with a chainsaw being sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
I pay huge tribute to the bravery officers demonstrated when confronted by acute and completely unacceptable levels of violence and highlighting the criminal justice outcome is important to send a clear message that violence against officers and staff will not be tolerated.
Listening to examples of the bravery, professionalism, and skill of police officers, staff, and volunteers, and the relationship of trust and support they have with our communities is an uplifting part of leading Police Scotland.
There is a hero made every day in policing.
I look forward to meeting some of those who have demonstrated the best of policing at my annual bravery and excellence awards next week and, this year, it is hugely positive we will also recognise the contribution of police animals.
Since my appointment, I've been clear I want to support our frontline colleagues to deliver for communities. A key aspect of supporting officers, staff, and volunteers is understanding their experiences so we can take action to improve and this month I provide an update on our workforce survey.
The survey underlined the commitment to public service and ethos of teamwork that runs through policing in Scotland.
While the results showed leadership communication, engagement, and visibility improved compared to the previous survey, this will remain a focus for me and the Chief Officer Team.
Colleagues were also clear that resourcing continues to be a significant challenge.
Yesterday, Assistant Chief Constable Catriona Paton and our HR Chief Officer Nicky Page provided evidence to the Criminal Justice Committee on policing and mental health, including on the vital issue of officer and staff welfare.
As illustrated by that session, and by my report today, our officers, staff, and volunteers provide a valuable and demanding service to the public, from that initial call for help, being the initial responder in violent and dangerous situations, or working with victims and families during investigations, it is a job which places our people at moments of crisis and trauma daily.
Policing tests courage, compassion and professionalism, and as we’ve heard today, officers are attacked during their duties, with around 20 assaults on our people on average each day.
Violence against officers and staff is unacceptable, it is not part of the job and we take action to hold perpetrators to account and support our people when attacks occur.
Our people are our greatest asset and policing can only succeed if they are physically and emotionally healthy and motivated to serve the people of Scotland.
Building a thriving workforce is a key pillar of our vision and part of that is providing better support services like the employee assistance programme, expanding our trauma risk management service, and delivering more lifelines courses and we share updates the Authority’s People Committee on our health and wellbeing action plan.
At the same time, it’s crucial we provide the equipment and facilities which can improve experiences, such as body worn video and better quality working environments, and that we focus our investment on strengthening and supporting the frontline.
The pressure on our workforce has been a key message for me during the pre-budget process ahead of 2026-27.
Our Chief Financial Officer, Sarah Roughhead will provide an update on our budget build later in today’s agenda.
I also welcome the input from His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland, Craig Naylor, and Fiona Mitchell-Knight from Audit Scotland on the Best Value audit.
With the publication of the Scottish Government’s draft budget, and the spending review setting out indicative plans funding to 2028-29 for resource, it is worth me, as Chief Constable, drawing together some of the considerations and implications for the year ahead, and into the longer term.
The Criminal Justice Committee’s pre-budget scrutiny report underlined parliamentary recognition of the funding challenges across the justice sector in Scotland. The committee highlighted the significant savings made by policing and the fire service since 2013 and called for reinvestment into future funding.
Cross parliament recognition has been built on hard-won and evidenced efficiencies and improvements achieved through the reform of policing since 2013, which was also explicitly recognised in the Scottish Government’s reform strategy published last June, which stated that almost £2.5 billion has collectively been taken out of the police and fire cost base over the last 10 years.
A key contributor has been policing in Scotland’s strong financial management.
This grip enabled detailed pre-budget evidence and a clear-eyed assessment of the implications of flat cash funding for an organisation which spends 86% of our resource budget on pay and which has already delivered efficiencies, including through workforce reduction.
Broadly, I outlined a minimum £104.9m revenue uplift requirement for the coming year to maintain the status quo. A further cost of £5m has been incurred because an inflation guarantee in the 2025-26 pay award has been triggered.
The funding outlined by the Scottish Government is less than we requested, at around a £90m uplift. We also have ring-fenced funding for the Retail Crime Taskforce as well as the ongoing review of case files relating to group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation.
This is an extremely challenging position which I will manage, but will inevitably have consequences.
Detailed planning is ongoing to set a budget for 2026-27 that prioritises and maintains the safety and security of the people of Scotland in the context of intensifying demand driven by poverty, geopolitics, cybercrime and civil unrest, some of which we have covered.
A balanced budget is a red line for me to ensure we maintain our reputation for strong financial management and so some difficult decisions must be made, and some of those must be made quickly.
Investment to support continued workforce modernisation which includes civilian investigators, vetting staff, and production workers doing valuable work to address demand that would otherwise have placed further pressure on officers or led to increased backlogs will be limited.
We are further increasing scrutiny and permissions to fill vacant staff roles and we won’t push forward with further planned workforce modernisation, for example in Contact, Command and Control (C3) Division. Staff posts established at C3, which will remain, have released experienced officers for other duties but we won’t follow through on the full recruitment.
We’re squeezing the overtime budget for 2026-27 and reviewing our police officer recruitment profile for the year ahead.
Overtime allowed a valuable contribution to policing in Scotland during 2025-26, supporting Operation Portaledge and policing of protests. Working closely with partners, we’ve made some progress in reducing overtime for officers attending court but focus across the criminal justice system must continue.
Our overtime budget will be a significant challenge, requiring a greater appetite for risk and a cultural shift closer to a no overtime assumption.
Through retirement and other reasons, around 700-800 officers leave Police Scotland each year and police officer recruitment will continue in 2026-27.
As I have said, and the Authority has underlined, a balanced budget is a red line.
Therefore, we cannot commit to recruiting officers we cannot afford. When and how many officers we recruit is a major focus of budget setting and an important financial lever.
We will recruit, including with a March officer intake of around 75. We will further develop our recruitment plans for the year ahead.
We’ll invest in improving our estate to give officers and staff better accommodation and provide professional spaces for the public, as well as in body armour replacement, and to maintain our fleet.
We’re further prioritising our transformation programme for 2026-27 and will focus on roles and projects which free-up frontline officers and staff’s time through better ways of working or by reducing demand. I have been clear the pace of delivering on our vision is dependent on ongoing support.
The fine balance of workforce numbers, overtime, improving our buildings, and driving transformation is at the heart of our discussions for the year ahead and we will take a holistic approach which appreciates the trade-offs between these important elements.
I know we will discuss the detail of that further, in private, today and we also continue to engage with the Scottish Government on these matters.
Longer-term, the case for, and challenge of, necessary change was further underlined by the Scottish Government’s Spending Review, which was published alongside the draft budget and outlined indicative spending plans up to 2028-29 for resource, and up to 2029-30 for capital.
The review aims to deliver £1.5 billion recurring savings over the period and includes a flat cash resource profile for policing up to 2028-29.
I continue to believe that reform achieved must not only be recognised, but rewarded, and policing should be differentiated on that basis.
As we have underlined throughout the pre-budget process for 2026-27, flat cash does not maintain the status quo.
By way of illustration, each one per cent pay award represents around a £13m cost pressure, the equivalent to the cost of over 200 full time roles. Each one percent of inflation represents a £2.5m cost pressure.
I was hugely grateful for the quality of the work of Audit Scotland and HMICS and for where the audit validated the strengths and achievements of Police Scotland.
I am equally grateful for the additional clarity and focus on the areas where I know policing can improve, must improve, such as workforce planning, reducing absence and the proportion of people on modified duties.
We are already taking forward improvements set out and will update the Authority further as progress is made.
Delivering on the recommendations and further embedding our culture of best value is the right thing for policing and for our communities. It is also a pressing necessity against a flat cash outlook.
I know the scale of this challenge – reshaping the workforce against a shrinking real-terms resource base will mean a smaller workforce.
Frontline services will be prioritised and to do so we’ll unlock capacity by getting more people back to work or deployed on full duties, and freeing-up officers from roles which don’t require warranted powers.
Balancing those imperatives against the highly demanding nature of policing is a leadership, culture, and resource challenge.
The audit also called out barriers including annual budgets, an inability to borrow or hold reserves and fixed workforce parameters, which we must work with the Authority and government to navigate.
We are delivering on the vision and making progress against our three-year business plan – but there are real constraints and the funding outlook adds further challenge.
During 2026-27, we will build our next three-year business plan as we continue this phase of policing reform, to build an effective and sustainable model which prioritises and protects the services which keeps people safe and upholds our legislative duties.
Doing so will be in the context of changing demand and, as we have seen through Operation Leste, external events can drive demand for policing.
One example which changes the operating environment for policing is the management of risk in prison estates and the management of risk in our communities.
Earlier this month, I met with former Scottish Police Authority Chair Martyn Evans who leads the independent Scottish Sentencing and Penal Policy Commission.
The commission’s work set out the inefficiency of Scotland’s high incarceration rate, both in terms of higher reconviction rates for short sentences compared to community payback orders and the cost of year in prison (£47,000) compared to the £5,000 cost of a community sentence.
Mr Evans makes the public safety and current human cost case for more focus on prevention as a core purpose of public services.
Supporting victims is a pillar of my vision for policing. Public and victim confidence in the wider justice system is a crucial consideration in these matters and I support the commission’s view that victims must be able to access clear, accurate information about sentences.
The commission’s report, Justice that Works, underlines the lack of evidence that Scotland uniquely requires a higher rate of imprisonment than elsewhere and outlines a pathway to reduce the prison population.
The report represents evidenced based, pragmatic, public policy thinking which can build consensus and drive collaboration to achieve better outcomes at better value to the public over the medium to long term.
In addition to highlighting the relationship between tackling poverty, giving children the best start in life, and preventing offending, the commission raised key challenges to address in order to effectively manage release to the community, including provision of throughcare and housing and the need for immediate support.
Policing will seek to play our part in a system-wide focus which drives these long-standing imperatives,
As Scotland works toward those ambitions, early release of prisoners to address the immediate and significant challenge of the increasing prison population, drives additional demand on policing as well as the wider criminal justice system, and partners.
This increased demand on policing relates to assisting the prison service, risk management, safeguarding, managing community impact, and responding to reoffending.
By way of illustration, of the just under 300 prisoners released under the three trances of release during November and December last year, 71 individuals are accused of reoffending, around on in four.
There have been 244 separate offences recorded, with the single biggest category being shoplifting, at almost half of the offences, although there are a number of more serious incidents and offences.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Sutherland leads our response to the early release, including providing information to assist with governor veto considerations, and we assess that 1,000 officer and staff hours have so far been dedicated to these checks.
We have set out these additional and immediate demands on policing in response to the consultation on the proposed changes to the automatic early release which was set out earlier this month.
I would make one further point in this area that management of offenders in communities may be assisted by improved technology such as electronic monitoring.
As set out, the management of offenders is one example of where external events generate additional demand on policing and I know Members have expressed interest in the impact of the early release arrangements on policing.