Almost 1,000 Scottish police officers are eligible to retire before next summer, it has emerged.
The Scottish Police Federation (SPF) warned that Police Scotland’s strength would suffer if recruitment did not keep up with the retirement rate.
The justice affairs magazine 1919 obtained freedom of information data showing 945 members of the police are coming up for retirement within the next year, amounting to about 6% of the total headcount.
Figures from August showed there were 16,207 full-time equivalent (FTE) police officers employed by Police Scotland on June 30, a decrease of 148 FTE officers since March 31.
This was the lowest count of full-time officers since 2007.
The SPF says Police Scotland cannot recruit enough officers to replace those who are leaving.
Its chairman David Threadgold said: “Efforts to bring Police Scotland back up to its establishment figure of 16,600 are being hampered because the service simply cannot recruit the number of officers it needs to replace those who are leaving.
“This will be exacerbated if the number of officers who can retire actually do.
“Policing has got some well-rehearsed challenges at the moment: officer numbers, pay, workload, demand, officer sickness and ill-health, police assault has been on the increase.
“But we should still be able to retain officers who could retire and the service has done nowhere near enough work to look to retain those who potentially can retire.”
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Justice Secretary Angela Constance said: “Record police funding of £1.55 billion this year – an increase of £92.7 million – means Police Scotland will take on more recruits this year than at any time since 2013.
“Police Scotland indicated that there were around 16,400 officers at the beginning of August, with over 550 new officers recruited since March and further intakes planned throughout this year.
“At a Scottish Police Authority Board meeting in June, Police Scotland described the number of candidates and applicants looking to join as ‘really positive’.
“Scotland continues to have more police officers per capita than England and Wales, and this continues to be a safe place to live, with recorded crime at one of the lowest levels since 1974 and down 40% since 2006/07.”
Scottish Conservative deputy justice spokeswoman Sharon Dowey said: “The SNP’s shameful long-term neglect of policing in Scotland has seen officer numbers plummet and our streets become less safe.
“This has created a vicious circle where officers are overstretched and more likely to have their duties restricted, be off sick long term, change career or retire early.
“On top of that, we have a high proportion of natural retirements looming.”
Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs said: “We have set out plans to recruit over 1,300 new officers in 2024-25, the highest number Police Scotland has recruited in a single year. Last month, we welcomed over 250 new probationary constables into Police Scotland and our officer strength is now around 16,400.
“The Chief Constable has been clear that increasing officer numbers is a focus and, at the same time, we are pressing change that strengthens the frontline by redirecting resources or delivering efficiencies.”
At a Scottish Police Authority board meeting in June, Chief Constable J Farrell said: “We know a number of factors, going back to recruitment and training being paused during the pandemic and Cop26 and an increase in retirement following pension changes, along with a recruitment pause to ensure we delivered a balanced budget in 2023-24, have contributed to greater volatility in officer numbers than would otherwise be the case.
“Police Scotland’s retention rate is in line with other large police services.”
She added: “Although our retention rate is good, I do recognise policing is a demanding job and I’m focused on improving the experiences of officers and staff.”
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