Nicola Sturgeon was yesterday attacked over “mouldy, rat infested and leaking” police stations after her Justice Secretary claimed complaints about the buildings were exaggerated.
At First Minister’s Questions, Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw said the crumbling police estate was evidence of a lack of investment in the force.
Mr Carlaw highlighted the issue in response to Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf’s dismissal of Scottish Police Federation (SPF) statistics suggesting that one quarter of Scottish police stations are in a poor condition.
Earlier this week Mr Yousaf said it was “unhelpful” to use “hyperbole” to say that police stations were falling apart.
Mr Yousaf also suggested the SPF was drawing attention to the issue in the hope of securing more cash from next month’s Scottish budget.
Just hours after the Justice Secretary’s remarks, the ceiling at Broughty Ferry police station in Dundee collapsed.
Mr Carlaw said: “Water pouring in through ceilings and windows, mushrooms growing in the carpets and rats scurrying about the mouldy floors, what word would the First Minister use to describe the state of some of Scotland’s police stations?”
Mr Jackson went on to claim the Scottish Government was receiving an increasing budget from the Treasury.
“The budget that the SNP Government receives from Westminster is on the rise, but what do we have to show for it?
“Leaking police stations and collapsing ceilings, half-built ferries, boarded-up hospitals and closed-off children’s wards, and a crisis in Scotland’s schools,” the Scottish Tory leader said.
But Ms Sturgeon suggested it was Mr Carlaw’s party that was guilty of under-funding the police.
She said: “I do think that Jackson Carlaw has something of a nerve to raise issues like this.
“Let me just remind Jackson Carlaw and the chamber that it was indeed the Conservative Party that reduced the resource budget of this government by £1.5 billion, that’s 5% in real terms since 2010.
“It’s also the Conservatives who have robbed the Scottish police service of £125 million in VAT that should never have been claimed.
“But despite all of that, since 2016 the annual budget for policing in Scotland has increased by more than £80 million, bringing it to £1.2 billion in this year.”
Later Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie called on the Scottish Government to launch an inquiry into police mental health following the recent suicides of four officers.
Nicola Sturgeon said she would “rule nothing out” when looking at ways to improve the mental health of police officers, although she stopped short of making a formal commitment to an investigation.
