Public inquiries 'placing crippling burden' on Police Scotland, as Sheku Bayoh case costs force £20m

Public inquiries are placing an "escalating and unsustainable burden" on policing in Scotland, the Scottish Police Federation (SPF) has warned.

The body, which represents rank-and-file officers, said the six major ongoing inquiries north of the Border represented a "crippling" financial and operational strain.

The federation said investigations were being delayed as a result of this and public safety was being compromised, with more and more officers seeking to leave the force.

Holyrood's finance and public administration committee is scrutinising the cost effectiveness of public inquiries in Scotland amid concerns they are swallowing up "significant sums of money".

In written evidence to MSPs, David Kennedy, general secretary of the SPF, said the inquiry into the death of Sheku Bayoh had already resulted in more than £20 million in direct costs to Police Scotland.

Mr Bayoh died after being restrained by police in Kirkcaldy, Fife, in 2015.

Meanwhile, the inquiry into the investigation of the murder of Emma Caldwell is expected to cost millions of pounds and "demand years of officer time".

Mr Kennedy said: "Each of these inquiries demands significant input from the police service in terms of legal support, evidential preparation, officer time, and administrative resources. Taken collectively, they represent a crippling financial and operational burden on a service already facing the most acute resourcing crisis in over a decade.

"Police Scotland operates with its lowest officer numbers since its creation, with frontline services under relentless pressure and no capacity to absorb additional workload.

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"Yet, time and again, officers are abstracted from their core duties to meet the requirements of public inquiries often for months or years at a time with no dedicated budget, no additional staffing, and no structured engagement in the planning of those inquiries other [than] that in which the police have to do so.

"This is not sustainable. It is not fair on our members, and it is not in the public interest."

Mr Kennedy said pressures were being absorbed by "reallocating staff, reducing local presence, delaying investigations, and increasing the burden on already overstretched colleagues".

He said: "To believe that public safety hasn’t been compromised would be foolhardy. Officer wellbeing is being totally neglected and we are seeing more and more officers wanting to leave the service.

"The Scottish Police Federation supports transparency, accountability and institutional learning. We support the principle of public inquiries.

"But we cannot support a system that expects those inquiries to be delivered at the expense of core policing services, with no financial safeguards, no formal consultation and no regard for the cumulative impact."

Mr Kennedy made four recommendations to the committee, including calling for legislation to ring-fence funding for all police-related inquiry costs, and creating a statutory pre-inquiry assessment process.

He also said the structure and governance of inquiries should be reformed, placing enforceable controls on scope, duration and financial oversight.

“The Scottish Police Federation cannot support a model that delivers accountability at the cost of capability,” he said. “The police service cannot continue to fund public inquiries by hollowing out its ability to police. Reform is not optional, it is essential.”

Between 1990 and 2024, the UK and devolved governments spent at least £1.5 billion on completed public inquiries, according to the Institute for Government.