Highland Council responds to SPA decisions on the Inverness Police Control Room

29th September 2017

The Scrutiny Lead for The Highland Council, Cllr Matthew Reiss responded to the decisions made today by the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) at their meeting in Inverness.

He said: "We are naturally deeply disappointed by the decisions today to close the Inverness Control Room and to spread the National Database Enquiry Unit between Inverness and Govan.

"The staff in the Inverness Control Room are extremely dedicated, skilled and experienced, and have served the Highlands and Islands well over many years. At least these decisions offer some certainty about their future and some hope and opportunities in terms of a new role in the national Database Enquiry Unit.

"We will not forget however that we were promised a National Database Enquiry Unit serving the whole of Scotland and an uplift in staff jobs and this promise has been broken. We were also told that the 14 serving officers in the Control Room would become additional officers in the community in the Highlands. We now hear that this additional resource will be gone within a few months as the current resource returns to establishment numbers."

He continued: “I was pleased however, to hear DCC Livingstone's clear commitment to decentralisation and the need to distribute staff jobs across the country."

Leader of the Council Margaret Davidson added: “I welcome the fact that the concerns which have been consistently raised by the Highland Council have been acknowledged by the SPA and I do feel that we have gone a long way to drive a greater transparency and engagement. But I am very disappointed that we will lose our valued Control Room and that we will not get the single NDEU based solely in Inverness as in the long term commitments previously made.

“It has been made clear today that the SPA will hold Police Scotland to account for their new commitment to decentralisation, looking for timescales for actions. As always, actions speak louder than words and we have had too many false promises from Police Scotland."