On 10 year anniversary of Police Scotland just 4% of police stations in “Good” condition

Scottish Liberal Democrats have today marked the tenth anniversary of the centralisation of policing in Scotland this weekend by unveiling new figures highlighting the state of the police estate.

A freedom of information request submitted by the party for the service’s 2020/21 condition survey has revealed that:

Just 3.87% of Police Scotland’s 310 properties were graded as being in Good condition, while 28.39% (88 properties) rated below Satisfactory.

The total bill to maintain the Police Scotland estate for the next five years is estimated at £239,728,772.68.  

Following the previous building survey in 2015/16, £296,469,267 worth of work was identified but just £76,112,499 was spent in the subsequent five years.

Liam McArthur MSP said:

“Maintaining the police estate is a challenge that the new First Minister will be intimately familiar with given that when he was Justice Secretary the roof of his local police station in Broughty Ferry caved in.

“When Police Scotland was introduced by SNP ministers, the public were told it would deliver significant cost savings which could be invested elsewhere in the service. Instead it has seen falling officer numbers, police counters closing and hundreds of millions in repairs which will likely never get done.

“Officers work hard to keep us safe day-in day-out. They deserve to go to work in safe and well-equipped police stations.

“The Scottish Government must not make the same mistakes with their proposed takeover of social care services. Local accountability is valuable and bureaucratic reform programmes have a tendency to spiral out of control.”