POLICE SCOTLAND ARE pressing ahead with redundancies at the emergency call centre serving Moray – despite a prior commitment to postpone action on its closure.
The Aberdeen control room that handles 101 calls from throughout the region was schedule for closure – but then given a reprieve in the wake of the damning report into the M9 crash scandal earlier this year.
That highlighted that there was already “low levels of control” at Police Scotland call centres, with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Scotland (HMICS) recommending that the planned closures in Aberdeen and Inverness be delayed – with hopes that their closure would be reversed.
However, it has emerged that staff at the Aberdeen centre are still being invited to undertake redundancy interviews, despite a Police Scotland promises that current moves to close the centre would be put on hold.
A north-east MSP said the action casts doubt over the Police Scotland promises in the wake of the HMICS report. Lewis Macdonald MSP said: “Police Scotland are asking staff to make important decisions about their future without having all of the relevant information to hand.
“No one is able to say when the Aberdeen service centre and control room are now likely to close or even when Police Scotland expect to submit their revised plans for independent scrutiny as required by HMICS.”
Police Scotland gave assurances to Justice Secretary Michael Matheson that they would implement all 30 recommendations put forward in the HMICS report earlier this year.