Lothian and Borders Police

Later this month Lothian and Borders Police Board will be presented with two reports from Lothians Police Chief David Strang concerning the state visit of Pope Benedict XVI and the Climate Camp for action, both events which occurred in 2010.

Chief Constable Strang reports to the board that during the state visit every Police division was involved and that the visit cost the force £543,226 he goes on to say that he is still negotiating with the Scottish Government in relation to recouping some of the costs from them.

In relation to the climate camp protests Chief Constable Strang reports that that the operation cost £649,600.  Overtime alone cost £379,280, other non staff costs came to £91,122 whilst the cost of bringing in other police forces cost the force £179,198.

Mr Strang asks the board to take no action other than to note the two reports, although there will undoubtedly be a discussion of sorts taking place.

For the past couple of months I have been pursuing Lothian and Borders Police for full disclosure of financial information in relation to their two operations mentioned above.  Because both operations were of such significance and scale this has taken some time.  I will continue to press for a full release of the broken down figures and publish them on my blog ASAP, though it’s a bit of a race as no doubt several journalists also have similar requests for information submitted to Fettes.  The broken down costs will be of more interest then the total figures which have been released and the broken down figures will allow for more scrutiny of the force.