To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that police officer numbers have fallen to their lowest level since the establishment of Police Scotland. (S6O-03432)

Despite the deeply challenging financial circumstances, our budget settlement for 2024-25 for Police Scotland includes an additional £75.7 million to protect front-line policing. As the chief constable confirmed to the Criminal Justice Committee, that investment will enable Police Scotland to bring officer numbers up to around 16,500 to 16,600.

This week, we expect another 120 officers to commence training, in addition to the almost 200 new officers joining in March. Further recruitment intakes are planned across the year.

Scotland continues to have more police officers per capita than England and Wales, with 30 officers per 10,000 of the population, compared with 24 officers per 10,000 of the population in England and Wales.

The cuts in police numbers are leaving our officers overwhelmed and overstretched. Many are leaving the service, and mental health absences are soaring. The Scottish Police Federation says that the service is becoming a “reactive service”, and it warns that the lack of community police gathering intelligence will lead to more organised crime.

Has the cut in police numbers on the Cabinet secretary’s watch left Police Scotland in crisis? What action will she take to restore confidence with the Scottish Police Federation and officers, which has been broken as a result of the cuts in police numbers?

I have already outlined to the member that, from the start of this financial year, we have reported additional recruitment. As the year progresses, there will be further recruitment, which will boost front-line police officer numbers.

I assure Mr Smyth that local policing is a central priority. The chief constable has been absolutely crystal clear about that and about ensuring that the service does not become a purely reactive service. That is why she very much welcomed the significant additional investment that the Government is making here and now.

On Mr Smyth’s remarks about the importance of the mental health of serving police officers and how they are at present expected to respond to the mental health needs of the community, I am happy to write to him further about the breadth and depth of work that is going on to ensure that police officers can be more focused on policing and that other partners play their part.

Our police force is underfunded and overstretched. It has been forced to no longer investigate thousands of crimes. There are not enough officers, and the force does not have enough resources to perform its duties. As a result, the public will be put at greater risk. Does the Cabinet secretary accept that fewer officers could mean more victims of crime?

I dispute that our police service is underfunded, because we have continued to increase investment in Police Scotland year on year since 2016. I have already outlined the significant work in and around recruitment that will progress this year.

It is a sorry state of affairs when people continue to misrepresent the current practice of Police Scotland and serving police officers when the information is available. In the interests of transparency, Police Scotland has rightly said that it will continue to investigate all crimes; it is only when there are no reasonable lines of inquiry that it will quickly provide information to members of the public. That new way of working is assisting in freeing up police officer hours—for example, the north-east pilot has freed up more than 2,600 police officer hours.

We know that there are impacts on police officers’ mental wellbeing given their difficult role. The impact of attending incidents involving mental health cases is one factor in that. What additional support services can be put in place to support officers in order to help to retain and increase numbers of officers in Police Scotland?

There is particular support available for police officers, who very often in their day-to-day work have to run towards danger as opposed to running away from it. It is imperative that we support their wellbeing if they have been exposed to traumatic incidents. However, it is also crucial that we support their wellbeing because of the day-to-day stresses of their job. I think that we would all acknowledge that policing is a demanding role that is done on behalf of all of us.