NEW recruits to Scotland’s cash-strapped police force have been told to bring their own paper to training if they want printed lesson notes, it has been claimed.

Police Scotland introduced digital training courses last year, but the Scottish Police Federation (SPF) said it received an assurance that probationers would still receive printed notes on request.

However, Calum Steele, the SPF general secretary, said printouts appear to be “conditional on bringing paper” in what he described as a horrendous corruption of the assurances he has received.

Last week it emerged that Police Scotland had plans to cut the number of officers in the country, with financial documents proposing to cut police by 100 through “freeing up” officers in back office roles, saving £2.7 million.

The move was criticised by Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative MSPs and the SPF.

Mr Steele said one officer was refused a printer cartridge because of “budget restraints” unless its was “business critical”, he said.

He accused Police Scotland of being “pennywise and pound foolish” by spending nearly £18 million on consultants while “counting beans” among the rank and file.

“It’s utterly horrendous,” he said. “The service tries to get people to join the police, and the moment they come in their first exposure to the realities of policing is that they can’t afford to buy paper.

“It’s hardly going to inspire confidence among them that their future career is going to be rosy.

He added: “The service is becoming pennywise and pound foolish, as demonstrated by the fact they are prepared to spend millions on consultants even though there is no benefit for the wider service.

“The SPF sees little evidence that money spent on consultants has delivered any tangible benefits for the police service.”

Mr Steele tweeted: “Last year when digital courses were floated the SPF was assured printed lesson notes would be available to probationer officers if requested – even in the most corrupt interpretation of that assurance never did we consider that was conditional in supplying the paper.”

Police Scotland Chief Superintendent Nichola Burns said probationary officers attending Tulliallan were asked to attend initial training with an electronic device for use during classroom lessons and for studying and revision purposes.

“If however, an officer has a learning requirement which requires printed notes, then these notes will be provided by Police Scotland,” she said.

“We receive feedback at the end of every course and the introduction of electronic notes has been favourable to date. We will continue to monitor and evaluate feedback and will address issues with training materials as and when they arise to ensure we can positively shape the future provision of training for our officers.”

She added that Police Scotland’s use of consultants was offered “under a competitive tender process and in line with public sector requirements”.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said ministers “have committed to protecting the police resource budget in real terms in every year of this Parliament – delivering a boost of £100 million by 2021 – as well as continuing our dedicated police reform funding for a further year, with £31m in 2018-19.”?