Cash-strapped Police Scotland spend £4m a year on officers who are suspended from duty

More than £4 million a year is being spent on wages for suspended police officers, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. According to a Scottish Police Authority report obtained by the MoS, in the first quarter of this year more than £1 million was spent on salaries for 77 suspended officers. They include 58 constables, 14 sergeants and five officers from the most senior ranks, with the annual bill reaching more than £4 million. Some of the cash goes to officers who have already been convicted of serious offences but have not yet been dismissed. Among them is Carmichael John Williamson, known as John, who was last week found guilty of raping a teenager and a woman in Shetland. The 32-year-old constable was convicted at the High Court in Edinburgh but has been suspended on full pay since January 2024. He will continue to be paid his £50,000 salary, unless he resigns, until the force carries out its own misconduct proceedings. On Friday, former sergeant Campbell Petrie, 50, of Glasgow , was sentenced to 12 years in prison for attacks against two women, including two counts of rape, over a 17-year period. He was suspended in December 2023 but remained on full pay of at least £54,000 a year for two years before retiring. PC Carmichael John Williamson was convicted of crimes against women in Shetland Chief Constable Jo Farrell has said the force is taking action against offending officers The Scottish Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said the length of time that officers are suspended was ‘frustrating’. Chairman David Threadgold added: ‘It doesn’t really help anyone to have officers suspended for years on end. If it’s a criminal allegation, the time taken for the police to investigate, for the Crown to make decisions and to then go to court can be extremely long. ‘The sums of money involved in paying these salaries… if you put that resource back into community policing it would make a significant difference.’ Police Scotland has lost around 800 officers in the last decade, with Chief Constable Jo Farrell previously calling for an extra £34 million to recruit at least 350 new officers. Scottish Tory justice spokesman Stephen Kerr said: ‘Current regulations are wholly inadequate and changes being proposed do not go far enough. Firm timescales and regular updates for everyone involved, especially for suspensions that continue year after year, must be provided.’ New misconduct regulations will come into force next month, allowing internal investigations to continue even if an officer retires or resigns. Police chiefs said it would also allow claims of wrongdoing to be handled ‘in a more robust, timely and transparent way’. A Police Scotland spokeswoman said regulations required suspended officers to receive full pay and that a review is done regularly ‘in order to confirm this remains the most suitable option’.