£1.5m savings claim challenged
9 Nov 05
Police chief has "no idea" where Executive got fingerprint savings figure from
Sir Willie Rae, the chief constable of Scotland's largest police force, has publicly questioned where the Scottish Executive's claim of £1.5m savings from new crime-fighting laws will come from.
The chief officer was giving evidence to Holyrood's Finance Committee on the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill, which will empower police officers to fingerprint people at crime scenes without having to take them back to police stations.
The Executive estimates that this will save police forces £2m, although this will be offset by £450,000 in additional costs. Speaking about the mobile fingerprint machines, Sir Willie said he had "no idea" where the savings figure would come from.
An Executive spokesperson later said the figure was time savings, based on talks with frontline police officers.
In its written submission to the Parliament the chief police officers' association ACPOS earlier said that it was concerned that other cuts would be needed when the wider powers in the bill come in, and criticised the Executive's haste and lack of financial planning surrounding the bill.