 Felly, mae'n gweithio i'r next item of business, which is a statement by the cabinet secretary, Michael Matheson, on policing 2026. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of his statement, and if members wish to ask a question, I would encourage them to press their button as soon as they can, and I call on Michael Matheson to deliver the statement. When the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland launched the consultation on their 10-year policing 2026 strategy, I committed to update Parliament following the consultation, and once the revised 10-year strategy had been submitted to me for approval. The final strategy was laid before this Parliament earlier today. This is the first time a 10-year strategy has been developed for policing in Scotland. It was finalised following wide-ranging consultation and engagement, which has demonstrated strong support for the key elements of the strategy. I am happy to endorse the vision set out in policing 2026. The merger of 10 police organisations into a single police service has not been without its challenges, but, through commitment and professionalism of officers and staff, much has been achieved. Savings have been realised, allowing resources to be focused on service delivery, public confidence in the police remains strong and recorded crime is at a 42-year low. HMICS Derek Pehman recognised in his last annual report that Police Scotland is better prepared than legacy forces to meet the operational challenges ahead. The last few weeks have underlined the changing nature of the threat that we ask our police service to address. We experienced a global cyberattack on 21 May, and we have seen curly terrorist attacks on the streets of London and on children and young people at a pop concert in Manchester. Police forces and their emergency services colleagues across the UK respond heroically in the face of those attacks, and we all appreciate their work. A single police service has strengthened access across Scotland's communities to specialist policing capabilities, including firearm capabilities. That, coupled with the decision to increase the number of firearm officers in Scotland, has ensured that Scotland is well prepared to respond. Over the past few weeks, Police Scotland has provided assurances that they are fully supported to lead our fight against terrorism. However, we will continue to keep that under constant review. It is by interacting with communities and being trusted by them that we will prevent further attacks from taking place. I welcome the emphasis in the strategy on strengthening Police Scotland's cyber capability and capacity, including recruiting more civilian cyber specialists to counter the threat posed by cyberattacks such as the one that we saw in May. The strategic policing priorities capture the public's expectation of our police service. To deliver on those expectations, the strategy focuses on five key areas—protection, prevention, communities, knowledge and innovation. Police Scotland is a national service, but policing is delivered locally. I welcome the strategy's commitment to building on Police Scotland's already strong community relations. I believe that it is those strong community links and the increase in front-line policing capacity to be delivered by the strategy, which will further improve public confidence in the police. The strategy also recognises that demands in policing are increasingly focused towards addressing issues of vulnerability. Police Scotland is one of the first police services in the UK to implement mandatory mental health and suicide intervention training for all officers up to and including the rank of inspector. As part of 2026 implementation, Police Scotland will change how vulnerability is assessed at first contact and beyond, enabling the police service and its partners to respond in a way that best meets the needs of vulnerable service users. That complements the ambition in the Scottish Government's 10-year mental health strategy. We have committed to increasing the mental health workforce in key areas, including working within Police Scotland, with £35 million of additional investment over the next five years for 800 extra workers. Those are the commitments of a Government and Police Service, which sees the police as a vital, trusted and reassuring cornerstone of our society. I welcome Police Scotland's commitment to maintaining officer numbers in 2017-18, for the seventh year in a row since we met our target of 1,000 extra police officers in 2011. In policing 2026, the chief constable has made his assessment of the shape of the workforce and the skills needed to meet future demands. He proposes a workforce model that will increase operational policing, capacity and capability by freeing up officers from support work and recruiting more expert police staff to tackle new threats such as online fraud and cyber attacks. His conclusion is that this will allow Police Scotland to slow the recruitment of police officers in the longer term, while continuing to improve the service to the public and building the capability and flexibility that are needed to respond to our changing society. However, I am absolutely clear that no decision must be taken to slow Police Officer recruitment until there is evidence that the planned increase in operational policing capacity has been delivered. I have asked HMICS Derek Penman to work with the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland to develop a robust methodology to supply this evidence and to provide strong scrutiny and assurance around delivery of increased operational capacity. Police Scotland and the SPA must demonstrate that additional capacity is being delivered before police officer recruitment is slowed. The chief constable will continue to review Police Scotland's capacity and capability in the context of any new and emerging threats. The plans that Police Scotland has set out up to 2019-20 show that the number of police officers will remain well above the number that we inherited in 2007, something that I remain strongly committed to. Any proposals beyond three years must be subject to full consultation when Police Scotland refreshes its strategy for 2020 onwards. Placing 2026 is clear. It is clear that the SPA and Police Scotland are working to a three-year plan to deliver financial sustainability. To support Police Scotland's work, this Government has committed to protecting the police resource budget in real terms in every year of this Parliament, a boost of £100 million by 2021. We have committed a further £61 million in 2017-18 to support the delivery of policing 2026. I continue to press the UK Government to address the glaring vac disparity that has already cost Scotland's police and fire services £140 million and could increase to a total of £280 million by the end of the current parliamentary session. The 2026 programme is ambitious and challenging. Clear governance and the effectiveness of the SPA in supporting and holding Police Scotland to account for delivery will be crucial to its success. Decision making must be open and transparent, with service improvement driven through collaboration with partners, communities, officers and staff. As Cabinet Secretary for Justice, I will take a close interest in how the strategy is being delivered. Over the next couple of months, I expect the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland to develop robust implementation and financial plans that demonstrate how they will work towards a sustainable and effective service that delivers the ambitions in policing 2026. I also know that the public and Parliament expect strong governance and accountability in policing, and the SPA and HMICS must work together to play a vital role in oversight of implementation, particularly on providing additional assurance that the increase in operational capacity is being delivered and there is delivering improvements. I want to end by talking about the police officers and staff all over Scotland who protect us all. We ask many of those men and women to do things and take risks which few of us have the courage to do. The strategy is focused on making their jobs more rewarding, to allow them to better use their time protecting the public and to strengthening our communities. Police Scotland and the SPA must work hand in hand with their workforce and their representatives to support and energise them to realise the change. I encourage members who wish to ask a question and who have not already done so to press their request-to-see buttons. Margaret Mitchell I thank the cabinet secretary for early sight of his statement. The police are the service of first and last resort, yet page 22 of the policing 2026 strategy states that crime figures are not an accurate measure of demand. Only one in five incidents attended by the police result in the crime being recorded. Considering that recorded crime in isolation is therefore not an accurate measure of demand on policing services, what is the cabinet secretary doing to ensure more accurate recording of the demands on police time and how can the level of police numbers required to cope with this demand be decided without this accurate data? Finally, can the cabinet secretary outline what the impact of the failed I6 project will have on the 2026 strategy? The member's latter point is that the I6 project was predated in 2026, so it has already been taken into account with the new strategy. In the issue of demand, the member will recognise that recorded crime only demonstrates the crimes that have been recorded. Of the almost 3 million calls that Police Scotland receives each year, around 80 per cent of them do not relate to crime. A large amount of them deal with issues such as vulnerability. As is set out in 2026, Police Scotland intends to change the way in which it assesses vulnerability with the introduction of Thrive, a system that more effectively assesses an individual's vulnerability to ensure that they then receive an appropriate response to their particular needs. That is a reflection of the changing demand that our police service now faces and why the chief constable believes that he needs to adapt the workforce in order to reflect that, including the demand that they have for different types of crimes. For example, the increasing number of cases that they have relating to cybercrime require the skill sets within the organisation to effectively deal with those issues. As a member will be aware, I have just said in my statement about the additional resources that we are providing on mental health, some of which will go to Police Scotland. Having mental health staff based on their contact command and control centres able to support staff on the ground when they are dealing with an individual to ensure that they get the most appropriate response. The member raises an important issue about demand on the service, which exactly highlights the reason why we need to adapt the workforce that we now have within Police Scotland to ensure that we have the necessary skills to support the police and the job that they are doing and the systems in place that help them to meet the needs of individuals who do and present as being vulnerable. That is exactly what is at the heart of the 2026 strategy. I thank the cabinet secretary for advance copy of the statement. It is disappointing that the cabinet secretary has not made time for a statement about the SPA. It is not possible to deliver that ambitious strategy for policing without a functioning SPA that commands public confidence, and it is vital that the situation is resolved. I welcome the publication of the strategy and I want to thank the dedicated officers and staff who serve our police force across the country. In order to achieve transformation, Police Scotland must plug the black hole that is at the heart of its financial budget. Is the cabinet secretary confident that this strategy will achieve that, or will we be faced with another critical Audit Scotland report? Many of the difficulties experienced by Police Scotland sit at the door of an SNP Government that ties itself to a policy of extra police officers—a policy that it does not properly fund, which has led to support staff being cut and officers backfilling roles. The chief constable has presented a plan to address that. The cabinet secretary says that no decision will be taken regarding recruitment unless there is planned increase in operational policing capacity. Considering the financial difficulties that are facing the police, how does he expect that to be possible? The member raises an important issue about transformation. A key part of what is at the very heart of 2026 is the transformation of Police Scotland, in particular its corporate functions, to ensure that they are more effectively supporting front-line police officers. That has been one of real challenges with the amalgamation of eight forces into one in ensuring that we have single systems operating right across the country. That is the very reason why we have increased the funding this year to £61 million in the police reform budget in order to support that transformational work. That transformational work, as the member will see in the strategy, is about releasing that additional capacity that is presently held up within the corporate side of the organisation to free that up in order to focus much more on front-line resources. The way in which it is configured at present is holding up resources that could be better deployed into other parts of the organisation. That is at the very heart of the strategy. The strategy sets out the broader approach that Police Scotland will be taking forward. As I mentioned in my statement, the SPA, along with Police Scotland, will now be taking forward engagement with key stakeholders on the implementation plan and on the financial plan that goes alongside the 2026 strategy. It will be absolutely key in making sure that what is set out in the strategy is delivered and that it is achieved. That is exactly why it is working to a three-year programme that is about delivering financial sustainability and transformation within the organisation. Over the coming months, the financial plan and the implementation plan will allow key stakeholders to express their view on how they are going to go about achieving that over the next three years. Does the cabinet secretary agree with me that Police Scotland must be able to adapt, as they see necessary, to the changing nature of crime that it faces in today's world? No member in the chamber will be in any doubt about the changing nature of the crime that our police service is facing—the increasing threat of cybercrime, online fraud, etc. All of those types of challenges are the recent incidents that we have had with the terrorist attacks in London and Manchester. It is absolutely crucial that we ensure that Police Scotland has the resources, capacity and capability to meet those challenges head-on. That is exactly why 2026 has been taken forward. The first time that we have had a 10-year strategy for policing in Scotland, it is challenging to imagine what it will be like in 10 years' time, but, nevertheless, what we can do is make sure that we are building on the key strengths that we already have within Police Scotland to ensure that we can meet those existing, new and emerging threats as they develop in the months and years ahead. I, for one, welcome the cabinet secretary's assurances on police numbers. I hope that he will agree with me that, in rural communities, there is a baseline level of officers that is required to ensure safe coverage and provision and that it should not just be based on the number of crimes committed. I hope that, as we look to build capacity, we would not see a disproportionate drop in officer numbers in rural communities. I recognise the important issue that the member is raising, although he will recognise that it is an operational matter for the chief constable to determine the level of policing that is delivered within any particular command area, working in conjunction with local commanders. The member has raised an important issue. For example, in large geographical areas that can take an extended period of time for officers to be able to respond to an incident that can stretch their capacity. It is important that the model that is used by the police service recognises some of those challenges within rural areas. The member might be interested to note, if he compares the draft strategy with that of the finalised strategy, one of the key areas that has been addressed within it is the rural aspect of policing in order to make sure that that continues to be strengthened and that it continues to be a key part of the 2026 programme of work. Let me draw members' attention to the fact that I have a close family member who is a police constable. Is the minister aware that section 41 of the Valuated Tax Act 1994 empowers the treasury and I quote, where VAT is charged on the supply of goods or services to a government department, direct the commissioners refund VAT. In particular, on 1 April 2015 in England, such a direction was made to allow the highway's agency to retrieve its VAT. Indeed, the introduction of academy schools has led to a similar effect. Is it not time the treasury was fair to Scottish interests and allowed us, in the police force, to regain the VAT that we have paid? The member raises an important point. As I mentioned in my statement, the cost of not being able to reclaim VAT for our police and fire service in Scotland so far has been £140 million. By the end of this Parliament, it could be almost double that figure. I know that there are many in this chamber who will say that we were warned of this at the time when we created Police Scotland. I would not reject that particular argument. However, what I reject is the idea that the treasury does not have the power to give VAT exemption or the ability to reclaim VAT to Police Scotland and to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. As the member has just made reference to, and as I have made reference to on a number of occasions in this chamber, where it has suited the treasury to allow a national organisation to reclaim VAT, it has allowed it to do so. However, for some reason, when it comes to Scotland's key emergency services, the Conservative Party refuses to do so. What we will be telling is whether there are new MPs in Westminster who will continue to vote against our police service and fire service up here being allowed to reclaim that VAT. It is unacceptable, and it is about time that people in the Conservative benches started standing up for our police service and fire service here in Scotland. John Finnie is filled by Liam McArthur. Cabinet Secretary, you might help me to understand the relationship between operational policing and political control. Quite rightly in your statement, and I thank you for the early sight of it, you talk about asking the HMICS to work with SPA in Police Scotland to develop a robust methodology to supply this evidence and provide strong scrutiny and assurance about delivery of increased operational capacity. You also talk about expectations about the development of implementation plans. You also mentioned that there is a sufficiency of resource, but you will keep under constant review. What is the mechanism for this chamber, for parliamentarians, to shape policy around the deployment of armed officers? In particular, how can we shape a situation where any de-escalation of threat out there is mirrored by a removal of firearms from police officers and a return of them to the armory? The member will recognise that the decision on the deployment of firearms officers is an operational matter for the chief constable. I made a statement in this Parliament last year about increasing the firearms capability within Police Scotland because it would breach the 2 per cent threshold that was previously given as an undertaking by the previous chief constable that should the number of firearms officers increase to beyond that of 2 per cent of at the force that he would raise this matter as a matter for parliament and for government to consider. The increase last year would take his beyond that 2 per cent figure, hence why I made that statement last year. Any change in the deployment of those issues, if the member will recall during my statement, I was very clear that any decision to change the mode in which they were being deployed would also be a matter that would require wide consultation within Scotland, with key stakeholders, with the Government and also with the Parliament. As the member will recognise at the present moment, firearms officers are used for firearms instance or whether there is a threat to life. If that was to change, that is an issue that would have to be considered through an open consultation engagement programme with Police Scotland and with key stakeholders, including the Parliament and the Government, so that we have an opportunity to express our views on that matter. I am conscious that there are those who are pressing for change in this area for a number of reasons, and if there is to be a debate on that matter, then it should be a debate that everyone has got an opportunity to express their viewing. I will try to squeeze in some more speakers if we can try to be as brief as possible. Liam McArthur. I thank him for the early sight of the statement and put on record my thanks to the officers and staff for the work that they do. The police consistently tell us that mental health issues are one of the biggest challenges that they face. Given that we are expecting additional mental health staff to be shared across A&E prisons, GP surgeries of which there are around a thousand and the police, how many of the 800 members of additional staff, referred to by the Cabinet Secretary, are expected to be placed with the national force? What will their role or roles be and when will they become available? The member recognises that the issue of mental health is a significant issue for police service and the demand that it faces as a result of calls to police service. There was a pilot run in Glasgow, with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which allowed officers outwith normal times to be able to use the mental health out of our service, which allowed them to contact them in order to engage with mental health workers to get advice for them in order to, when they were working with an individual who had come into contact with the police with a view to reducing a number of individuals who came into custody. The results of that pilot were very successful and that continues to be rolled forward within the Glasgow area and they are looking to take it into the Lothian's area as well. What I can say to the member is that that did not require mental health workers to be deployed with the police. It was about reusing the existing arrangements much more effectively in order to address those types of issues. However, what we are looking at is having the deployment of mental health workers in the contact command and control centres. They are able to advise those who are taking the call and those who are deploying resources and to communicate directly with staff and officers on the ground to give them advice and to also make links to other external agencies as and when that will be appropriate. The numbers of that are still to be finalised, but the idea is to try and reduce the need for those individuals to end up in custody in the first place, making sure that that resource is deployed on the right side of the gate before someone ends up in custody. That will be about deploying staff into the contact command and control centres, but it may also be at custody centres where individuals come into custody. However, the exact scale and nature of that is still to be determined, but there is a clear determination to make sure that it happens because we know from the pilot in Glasgow that it works very effectively in reducing the need for individuals with mental health problems to come into custody. Local relationships between the local community and the local police are extremely important to my constituents and others, especially if there can be continuity with the police. Does the cabinet secretary feel that the new strategy will impact on those local relationships? Local policing is absolutely key to the success of policing overall. Even the very sophisticated capabilities that Police Scotland has around dealing with major issues such as terrorism, absolutely key to helping to prevent those types of things from happening in the first place is about having strong, resilient communities that are cohesive and, at the same time, having police that are trusted and part of those communities. That is absolutely at the heart of the 2026 strategy. Local policing will be strengthened as a result of the strategy, it is about improving its capacity and its capability to do that type of engagement work, and that will help to ensure that the very strong links that they have with communities at the present stage are built on and developed yet further in the future. We can see that from the SPA's annual review that local authorities are feeding back that there are very strong partnerships already in existence in 2026. It is about building on that and making sure that local policing is at the very heart of our policing model in Scotland. Monica Lennon, to be followed by Gordon Lindhurst. Echoing John Mason's question, I welcome the commitment underpinning the strategy that emphasises the importance of strong community policing. However, a statement today has made no mention of the on-going status review and the role of police stations across the country. I know that the future of local stations in Hamilton, Larkon Shots, in my own region, are all under scrutiny. Without a firm commitment that local police stations would not be subject to closure. How can we be sure, cabinet secretary, that strong community policing will continue to be delivered into 2026? As I have mentioned in the chamber before, the police estate that we have in Scotland has developed over the course of the past 100 years, so we need to make sure that it is fit for purpose and that it is in the right place in order to help to support the delivery of local policing. As a member may be aware, in many areas where they are reviewing their existing estate, it is with a view to either staying in that facility, by bringing in other partners to support them or moving to another facility in that local area to work in partnership with other agencies, which is absolutely key again to making sure that we are delivering effective local policing. What is important here is to make sure that we have those effective partnerships. That is a key part of the estate strategy. As I have also made clear in the chamber, local commanders will have a key say in exactly determining which areas of the estate have to be changed. Whether there is a decision made on any local police station that will be a matter for the local commander, and then referring that through their own chain of command, which will then be considered with oversight within the SPA. That partnership is absolutely keen. It is at the very heart of the 2026 strategy. That is why part of the estate review is about building on that and making sure that those effective partnerships that deliver better outcomes for local communities are being taken forward to deliver the very important local policing that the member referred to. Gordon Lindhurst is to be followed with time by Fulton MacGregor. The cabinet secretary has referred to the unfortunate necessity to put more resources into fighting against terrorism and questions of cybercrime, which equally bring with them their own administrative work and challenges for the police force. We have the increase in violent crime recently in Scotland as well. It is not just rural communities but also cities like Edinburgh in which people are concerned about police response times. How can local people be assured that sufficient resources are available to the police so that they can sleep in their beds at home at night safely in a way that many of them at the minute are concerned that they cannot? If there is an issue in a particular command area, the member should take it up directly with the local commander if it relates to response times to particular incidents. However, as the Government has shown in our commitment to policing, over the course of this next parliamentary term we will be giving real terms protection to the police budget, allowing us to invest an extra £100 million into the police service. Alongside that, the additional monies that we are providing of £61 million in the police reform budget this year will help to support that important work that has been set out in 2026 about improving their capability and capacity. That is key in the strategy, as the chief constable set out, about improving their operational capability and capacity in order to meet the needs of local communities, to reflect on the changing demand that they are facing to work with other partners, to manage that demand much more effectively and that ends up coming to the police. That should be met by another organisation or another service, but to make sure that we are releasing that capacity to be able to deal with policing matters much more effectively. Those issues are at the very heart of the strategy. However, if the member has got a particular concern about response times in his constituency area, I encourage him to discuss that with the local commander in order to look at how that can be better addressed. I am very brief indeed, Fulton MacGregor. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can the cabinet secretary provide details on how police numbers in Scotland compare to police officer numbers in England and Wales? Unlike the picture in England and Wales since 2007, police numbers in Scotland have been increasing, unlike in England and Wales where they have decreased by almost 20,000. We believe that policing is at a key part to helping to support our communities and in keeping them safe. As a Government, we will continue to take forward policies that ensure that we deliver on that. Thank you, cabinet secretary. Apologies to members for coming in. We will now move on to the next item of business. We will take a few moments from members to the chain seat.