 Rwy'n meddwl i'r next item of business, which is topical questions. Question number one from Jackie Baillie has been withdrawn. Therefore, move to question number two and call Oliver Mundell. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of financial difficulties at Police Scotland following the departure of its director of financial services. Cabinet Secretary. The Scottish Government is committed to protecting the police resource budget for the entirety of this Parliament, delivering an additional £100 million of investment over the next five years. We have also provided an additional £55 million of reform funding in 2016-17. With regards to the departure of the director of financial services, this is a matter for the board of the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland. The Scottish Government has no role in this matter. Oliver Mundell. I thank the cabinet secretary for his answer. However, one of the most significant driving factors behind the establishment of Police Scotland was promised cost efficiencies. With this on-going development and last year's Audit Scotland report, which warned of a potential £85 million shortfall in the policing budget by 2018-19, what analysis his Government has made of what impact the broken promise will have on front-line services, particularly in rural communities such as Dumfries and Galloway? Cabinet Secretary. I am not entirely sure whether the member is aware that the Audit Scotland report has been overtaken by events. The Audit Scotland report refers to the financial situation prior to the previous spending review period on the allocation of funding that was then arrived at by the Scottish Government. For example, it took no account of the additional £55 million that I have just made reference to as part of the reform budget. It also worked on the assumption that there would be no further financial savings achieved within Police Scotland, which is exactly what the reform budget is there to do. It is there to make sure that we invest in areas in order to get greater efficiency from that. The financial position that was set out by the Audit Scotland report is not when it is now reflective of the situation following the spending review. I hope that that will give the member some reassurance of the actions that the Scottish Government is taking, not to make sure that we continue to invest in our police service here in Scotland. We certainly do not copy the approach that his colleagues in England and Wales have taken, which resulted in almost 17,000 police officers being lost. Oliver Mundell. In case I ask the cabinet secretary if the Scottish Police Authority now has a long-term financial strategy as recommended in the Auditor General report in November 2013 and again in December 2015. Cabinet secretary. Again, this is something that has also been overtaken by events because the SPA has already set out its initial version of its long-term financial strategy, which will be a 10-year strategy, taking it up to 2025-26. I understand that the SPA intends to update that yet further in the coming months, as it revised it going forward over the next few months. That is an issue that will be taken forward by the SPA and has again been set out by the initial approach that it has set out for its long-term financial strategy. As was recommended rightly so by the Audit Scotland report. Liam McArthur. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. In relation to Police Scotland's finances, the cabinet secretary will be aware of the story in the press today that Police Scotland's redundancy bill has come to £34 million so far. More than 1,000 civilian staff have lost their jobs since the creation of the national force. Does the cabinet secretary acknowledge that the arbitrary officer target reached an agreement between the SNP and the Tories after the 2007 election has contributed to the hemorrhaging of skilled civilian staff, forcing officers to undertake jobs that they were not trained for, and that in some cases has caused real harm? Cabinet Secretary. We have always been very clear with the reform of policing that there would be areas of overlap when you have eight forces coming into one. It is inevitable that there will be aspects that are already provided in one area that have already been delivered in another. That is what has been the consequence of the changing in staffing levels that have been necessary in Police Scotland. We were clear as part of the reform journey that there were areas of duplication that would result in a lower level of staff in Police Scotland than we had across the eight forces. Of course, the redundancy programme that we have in place is a programme that is there in order to allow staff who may find themselves in posts that are no longer required as a result of the reform programme to be able to take colour of time or to take voluntary redundancy. Of course, the member will also acknowledge that we have an agreed position of no compulsory redundancies, and that is the approach that the SPA has taken forward. On a specific point about the investment that has been put into voluntary redundancy and early retirement packages of some £33 million, the member should recognise that that upfront investment releases some £33 million each year going forward, which was part of the reform approach in order to make sure that the resources were being diverted into more effective areas of policing that were necessary than being used in areas that no longer had to be covered or were being duplicated elsewhere. What we will do is continue to work with Police Scotland to make sure that they can take that programme of reform forward. That is exactly why we have provided an extra year of the reform budget in this financial year to assist Police Scotland in that on-going reform programme that they have been taking forward over the past three years. Ben Macpherson. To ask the Scottish Government how much Police Scotland is required to pay annually in VAT. Cabinet Secretary. The member may be aware that Police Scotland is the only force in the UK that is required to pay VAT or is unable to reclaim VAT. No other police service of the 44 police services in the UK are required to pay any VATs. The exact same for our fire service here in Scotland. That is costing the Scottish taxpayer between £25 million to £30 million per year. That is the equivalent of approximately 1,000 members of staff. We have made it repeatedly known to the UK Government that this discriminatory approach to Police Scotland is entirely unacceptable and that the UK Government should be treating Police Scotland in the same way that every other police service across the UK and Northern Ireland is treated and treated with parity and being allowed to reclaim VAT. The only reason that it has not been taken forward is because UK ministers can't be bothered lifting the pen to make sure that action is taken to redress. That is an extremely unfortunate situation that discriminates against Police Scotland. Neil Findlay. Does the cabinet secretary believe that morale in the police has improved or deteriorated following the establishment of Police Scotland and the subsequent financial problems that it has experienced? I am terribly sorry, but the cabinet secretary almost forgot about you. I will try my best to answer the member's question. There is no doubt that there are serious issues around morale within Police Scotland that the staff survey that was published early towards the end of last year highlighted. The new chief counsel has made it very clear that a key part of the work that she will be taking forward is to make sure that the issues of concern that have been raised in the course of that staff survey are addressed. They have a range of work that are now being followed along with the SPA in order to address the concerns that have been raised by staff. As I am sure the member will recognise, when any major organisation goes through significant reform, there are consequences that can have an impact on staff morale. His own party was supportive of the creating of a single force here in Scotland and the chief counsel in the SPA has set out very clearly what the process of action they will take in order to address issues that have been highlighted in the staff survey. Douglas Ross. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. The cabinet secretary and my colleague Oliver Mundell have both mentioned the Auditor General report. That report said that the 2014-15 SPA accounts were incomplete of poor quality and subject to substantial changes. The Auditor General went on to say that they were exceptional in the experience of auditing public sector accounts. To use the cabinet secretary's own words, has he lifted a pen or has there been any action since that statement in the Auditor General's report for the Scottish Government and the SPA to work together to ensure that that substandard set of accounts do not get presented in future to allow us to have proper scrutiny of the budgets of Police Scotland? Cabinet secretary. The member is slightly behind the curve in this issue because there is already action being taken in order to address those very issues. The first part of that was set out in the governance review that was taken forward by the chair of the SPA. He is saying out that they need to make sure that the accountable officer who is the chief executive of the SPA is in a position where they can exert the right type of actions that are necessary in order to deal with police finance matters. That has been addressed within the police governance review and we have set out the need to take that forward. They have also set out their financial strategy which was published towards the end of March last of this year in order to set out the course of action that they are taking. The member is slightly behind the curve on this matter because there is a range of action that has been taken forward. I have no doubt that the SPA and the chief counsel will continue that programme of work in order to address the concerns that were raised by Audit Scotland. Gil Paterson. Thanks very much, Presiding Officer. Cabinet secretary, what support has the Scottish Government had from the other parties in this Parliament to end this farce of the Police Scotland paying that vat, being singled out indeed to pay that vat against any other authority in the United Kingdom? Cabinet secretary. I would hope that all members in this Parliament would recognise the situation that Police Scotland finds themselves in being discriminated in this way by the UK Government is completely unacceptable. I know that there has been elements of pointfingering in saying that you knew this before you created Police Scotland. It is because—what is one of the often excuses that I hear from the Conservative benches and others is that it is because you have created a single force. If that is the case, why does the PSNI have the right to reclaim that? It is a single force that covers Northern Ireland, the exact same for their file service when they created Highways England. They were happy to give them VAR exemption. As I note, the heads are down in the Conservative benches in those matters, but at some point they will start to stand up for Scotland's interests and Police Scotland's interests and make sure that Police Scotland is treated in a fair way, in the exact same way of every other police service in the UK and is given the right to reclaim that that is costing the Scottish taxpayer between £25 million to £30 million a year. The final question is from Alex Johnson. Would the cabinet secretary take this opportunity to confirm that the full cost of Police Scotland is covered from the Scottish block grant and that, including the VAT, if we no longer had to have a police force pay VAT it would then be wholly reasonable for the cost of that VAT to be removed from the calculation of the block grant? Cabinet Secretary? We have a warped way in which the Conservative Party wants to look at this issue. The reality is that most of an emergency services provisions in the UK are given the right to reclaim VAT, whether it be emergency services or police services. There is only one in the whole of the UK that is not able to do that, and that is Police Scotland. I would have thought that Alex Johnson, given how often he is so keen to demand that the Scottish government do X, Y and Z, he would be big enough to stand up to his colleagues down in Westminster and say, put this right and make sure that Police Scotland is not able to reclaim VAT just like any other police force in the UK.