By Keith Aitken in Edinburgh | 22 February 2012
Plans to rush through the creation of a national police force for Scotland heightens the risks inherent in the reforms, CIPFA has warned.
The Scottish Government wants to replace Scotland’s eight regional police forces, which report to joint local authority boards, with a single national force. A parallel process will create a single fire and rescue service, again in place of eight regional boards.Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill yesterday announced that he intended the proposal to come into force on April 1 next year.
CIPFA Scotland has voiced doubts about the reforms and the projected £1.7bn of savings over 15 years. It said today that the hurried legislative process could increase the risks attached to the proposals, and reiterated its call for a phased transition in which the old and new structures run for a period in tandem.
Policy and technical manager Don Peebles told Public Finance: ‘Organisational change of any kind is not
without challenge or risk. Changes to essential emergency services,
together with the scale of savings anticipated within a limited timescale, mean
it is essential that those risks are well understood and carefully
managed.
‘The need for an appropriate “shadow period” and for independent verification of the outline business cases are two specific recommendations that CIPFA has made to government and to the scrutiny committees.’
Both new national bodies will be initially headquartered north of the Forth, in the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan and Perth Community Fire Station.
MacAskill said: ‘The transition to the new services should be as smooth as possible and using existing venues as interim headquarters will keep costs and disruption to a minimum.’
But his Labour shadow, Lewis Macdonald, accused the justice secretary of ramming the legislation through at ‘breakneck’ speed.
‘There is a real risk that a frantic rush to meet Kenny MacAskill’s artificial deadline will mean thousands of valuable posts cut and far fewer savings than could be achieved if the job was done properly,’ he said.
John Lamont, chief whip for the Scottish Conservatives, welcomed the early implementation of the plans, but said there were still major concerns over local accountability.
