Only one in 13 police are on the beat in Scotland

ONLY 7.5% of Scottish police officers are available for frontline duties despite record recruitment, according to shocking new figures obtained by Scotland on Sunday.

More officers are on holiday or doing paperwork than are on patrol at any one time, the disturbing statistics from the Scottish Police Federation (SPF) reveal.

Scotland currently has more than 16,000 police - the highest ever - but a combination of holiday, rest days, paperwork, training, court duties and sickness means only a maximum of 1,200 are directly serving the public.

Years of mounting bureaucracy imposed by ministers are being blamed by the SPF for the scandal. They claim the 7.5% figure is a theoretical maximum and the true figure is nearer 5%.

The revelations will heap further embarrassment on the new SNP Government which recently watered down its election promise to recruit an extra 1,000 police officers. The SNP now claims the officers will be "additional", claiming they will be freed from other duties while keeping overall numbers stable.

Scottish police have previously refused to release figures for numbers of officers on operational duty for fear of encouraging crime and disorder. But the SPF is also locked in a pay dispute with the government and wants to prove officers are over-stretched.

The SPF says Scotland currently has 16,240 officers, of whom:

• 7.8% are on holiday;

• 31.4% on rest days.

• 16.6% in court, training, or off sick;

• 11% doing paperwork.

The remaining 33.2% are available for operational duties but have to be split into four shifts to cover a 24-hour period. Although that puts 8.3% on duty at any one time, the SPF say that comes down to 7.5% as a result of officers taken off the streets to process prisoners they arrest.

One officer, who asked not to be named, said: "To be honest, I'd put the figure nearer 5%. Sometimes stations are virtually deserted, especially if something big is going on in another division.

"Paperwork and ridiculous training courses take up so much time, but even more basic things like not having enough cells and having to transport prisoners across town just add to the headaches."

Norrie Flowers, chairman of the SPF, told Scotland on Sunday: "We have been saying these problems exist for years. Modern-day policing is much more complex than it ever was and this needs to be taken into consideration when staffing levels are looked at."

The SPF produced the figures as part of its response to a Scottish Parliament inquiry into the effective use of police resources.

Annabel Goldie, Scottish Conservative Leader, said: "When you see this evidence the scale of the SNP betrayal over its broken police pledge only grows.

"The evidence is depressing and paints a worrying picture of just how stretched the thin blue line has become.

"The money is there, there are young people who want a career in the police, the training college is underused and can turn out more than a thousand officers a year, the police want more resources, and the public wants substantially more police."

Norman Brennan, a former police officer and founder of the Victims of Crime Trust, said: "When I joined the force there was a bit of bureaucracy but if you arrested someone you could be back out on the beat within a very short time. Today, it can take you hours, even with the most-basic of arrests.

"We need a complete overhaul of the policing system in the UK and a return to commonsense ideas.

"If we could reduce paperwork by 50% then that would put more officers back out on the streets which is exactly what the public wants."

David Sinclair from Victim Support Scotland said the lack of a visible police presence on the streets was "obviously a concern". "The fact that there are just 7.5% of our police officers out on the streets at any one time clearly needs looking at," he said.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "As we set out to Parliament just last week, we are committed to making 1,000 more officers available in our communities. But this is not simply about numbers on the payroll. It is about ensuring a genuine improvement in how policing is delivered in our communities. This will involve substantial additional recruitment but also improved retention and the smart redeployment of existing officers."