UNISON statement on announcement that Chief Constable Sir Stephen House is to stand down from his post in 3 months time

Thursday 27 August 2015

This announcement is unsurprising. Chief Constable Sir Stephen House was put in an impossible position. The problems which beset Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Board are not down to one individual. They will not be fixed by his departure.

The Scottish government's arbitary political target of maintaining police officer numbers should be ended, as it is leading to the dismantling of our modern police force with thousands of civilian posts being lost. We need  a fundamental review of the long term funding of our police services in Scotland.

George McIrvine, branch secretary of UNISON Police Staff Scotland, said: "I wish Chief Constable Sir Stephen House all the best in whatever he chooses to do in the future. We disagreed on some decisions he made but the problems with Police Scotland are not down to one person. 

"Sir Stephen House was given the impossible task of merging Scottish policing into one police force, while having to meet political targets of 1,000 extra police officers, and at the same time introducing £1.1 billion efficiency savings target. These targets had little to do with good policing.

"Over 1,700 police staff have left their jobs while Police Scotland has been beset with problems. The Scottish Government must now review their manifesto pledge to maintain 1000 extra police officers as it is not working. They must also take a fundamental look at how we properly fund a modern police force in Scotland.

"Sir Stephen House should have publicly called on the Scottish Government to scrap all political targets and called for proper funding of our police service. Maybe now we can have a proper discussion about these issues.”

Scrap plans for new women’s prison, urges UNISON Scotland

Tuesday 13 January 2015

UNISON Scotland, the public services union with many members working in Criminal Justice services has urged the Scottish Government to scrap their plans to build a new Women’s prison.

The union has written to Justice Secretary Michael Matheson saying that a tendering exercise for the construction of a new jail near Greenock should be halted.

The plans go against expert opinion and are at odds with the Scottish Government’s declared policy of reducing the number of women in prison. A new prison of this size is also against the recommendations of the Commission on Women’s Offending.

Stephen Smellie, Deputy Convener of UNISON Scotland, and Chair of the union’s Social work Issues Group said: 

“Prison is a very expensive way of not solving problems. Committing large sums of money to expanding prison capacity is to spend money on failure.

"Far better than spending some £60m on a new institution, with associated running costs, would be investment in the services which can help tackle the root causes of women’s offending – poverty, substance and alcohol misuse, mental health problems, histories of domestic and sexual abuse.

"Spending which attempts to tackle with these represents a far better use of public resource in a time of acute pressures on public spending."

ENDS 

Note to editors: UNISON ebrief on Women Offenders

http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/briefings/
e-briefing_WomenOffenders_Jan2015.pdf

Neil Findlay MSP: Call for a review of convictions against Scottish Miners and other arrested during the 1984/85 strike

From Neil Findlay MSP - please use this link
http://www.neilfindlaymsp.com/the-conviction-of-miners-and-others-during-the-198485-miners-strike/ 
to email Justice Secretary asking for indendent review of Scottish convictionss during miners' strike 1984/85

Dear Friend, you may have seen recent press coverage of the campaign being run by David Hamilton, MP for MidLothian and I calling for a review of the convictions of Miners and others arrested during the 1984/85 Miner’s strike. Since making this call the response has been remarkable with over 650 people emailing the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Kenny McAskill and the Chief Constable of Lothian and Borders Police supporting our call for a review of these cases. Press coverage has been extensive with the main TV news and all of the major newspapers covering the story. We have since been contacted by a significant number of people who were involved at the time and who say their convictions were either bogus or based on the exaggerated claims of the arresting officers.  These cases need investigates to ensure that the injustices of Hillsborough and Orgreave were not been repeated in Scotland.

I am therefore asking two things:-

1)    If you, members of your family or friends and relatives haven’t yet signed up to the campaign then please do so today by clicking on the following link and taking 1 minute to complete the email template. This will send an email to Kenny McAskill and the Chief Constable calling for a review of the cases.

http://www.neilfindlaymsp.com/the-conviction-of-miners-and-others-during-the-198485-miners-strike/

2)    If you have an email list please send it out to your contacts asking them to sign up to the campaign

I want to thank everyone for their support to date –

Neil Findlay MSP

January 2013

www.neilfindlaymsp.com


.