Fife Council staff received thousands of physical and verbal threats in last four years

Figures released following a Freedom of Information request revealed a staggering total of 5514 physical threats were made to employees of Fife Council from 2016 to 2020.

And the figures also showed that 1963 verbal threats were made to frontline staff in Fife over the same period.

Commenting, Fife MSP Liz Smith said: “The staff who were subjected to these threats were only doing their job – serving the public and the local authority – they don’t deserve to get either physical or verbal threats.

“The figures provided show that they work in various departments of Fife Council, ranging from Adult Service to Property Services, Housing and Children and Families and Criminal Justice. It is notable too that the highest number of both physical and verbal threats in each of the years from 2016 up to 2020 was in Fife Council’s housing department.”

She continued: “Even if residents feel they have an issue they are not happy with, handing out physical and verbal threats to local authority staff is not on – there is no excuse for this. I find these figures very alarming and they underline the difficulties faced by some council employees when dealing with certain members of the general public.

“Appropriate action needs to be taken against the individuals concerned in handing out his kind of abuse.”

Sharon McKenzie, head of service, said: “We don’t tolerate any form of violence or abuse towards our staff. All incidents are recorded, and appropriate measures taken. If an incident is of a serious nature then we will report it to Police Scotland.

“Our employees receive conflict management training and are well briefed in dealing with challenging customers and deescalating techniques. Just like anyone else in their workplace, Fife Council staff should be able to carry out their work without the fear of verbal or physical attack and we don’t take such things lightly.

​​“All reported incidents are reviewed by Services to ensure appropriate follow up action has been taken.”