There is no funding for the policing of the Commonwealth Games in 2026, the chair of the Scottish Police Authority has warned.

Martyn Evans, who leads the body which oversees Police Scotland, said the multisport event in the city was “outside our risk appetite.”

His comments came as the Chief Constable warned that she would need to call in officers from other forces to help out with the policing.

Jo Farrell said she was still not clear on the details and could not say how it would impact the service’s ability to provide business as usual.”

READ MORE

Earlier this month, the Scottish Government backed plans for a scaled-back Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in less than two years’ time.

Organisers insist no public cash will be needed to stage the event.

Around £41.9 million of the £778m budget for the 2022 event in Birmingham was related to security costs.

However, the Glasgow Games total budget is expected to come in at around £120m.

At a meeting of the SPA board, the Chief Constable said the force had a “very well deserved and enviable reputation in delivering and preparing for major events” and that she did not have any concerns about being able to do so.

However, Ms Farrell said the service would “need to work with partners to assess the impact on resources and finance.”

She said the force would “be really clear” on their role to make sure they did not end up taking extra responsibilities.

Ms Farrell said the Games would happen “over a peak period of annual leave” and that Police Scotland was “not going to be able to manage this locally.”

“We are going to have to do mobilisation across the country to be able to bring resources in,” she said.

Lynn Brown, the SPA’s Chief Executive said she was unclear who they were supposed to be dealing with.

“Is it the Games? Commonwealth Games Scotland? Is it the Federation or the Government?

That's what we need to absolutely nail down.

“Who makes the decisions around what is required in terms of the role of authority?”

She said the SPA needed to “really get agreement on who's calling the shots on this and what guarantees they will give us in terms of finance.”

Board member Tom Hamplin said there needed to be more clarity on what safeguards would be in place.

There would, he added, need to be “in depth discussions around what is material to the games and what is policing as usal, ensuring that business as usual for the communities in Scotland are kept safe and not left behind as everyone's up front in the games.”

Mr Evans said the SPA needed to understand “at pace” who is “guaranteeing the funding for the policing of the Commonwealth Games, because there is, at the moment, as I understand it, [there is] no funding under our control, and we have the control of the policing budget, no funding for this event. I don't want to make too much of that at the moment, but having said that, the Games are only two years away.”

The Chair compared the event to COP26, when the force had just over a year to prepare for the global climate summit coming to Glasgow.

READ MORE:

However, he said it was clear from the start that the UK Government had guaranteed the funding of policing at the summit.

“I think this issue is at the moment outside our risk appetite, and that's not because of the competence of policing. It's not because you can't tell us exactly what the opportunity costs are.

“It's outside our risk appetite, because we don't know who the funder will be, and this will incur additional fund over our current budget, which is not included for a Commonwealth Games delivery by Police Scotland.”

The Scottish Government and Commonwealth Games Scotland have been approached for comment.