By Bill Heaney
Do people who telephone the police expect their call to be answered within a reasonable time?
Or does the call handler, who is probably not a police officer, make a decision on how urgent the call is and put it on the back burner in a list that may never be answered?
And is there yet another cover-up going on in the SNP’s Secret Scotland?
Tory MSP Russell Findlay, an ex-journalist pictured right, wanted the detail on this embarrassing scandal for the Scottish Government.
He told the Holyrood parliament: “A senior police officer has told the BBC that he was instructed by Police Scotland to investigate the matter. He produced a report, but no one knows where the report is. Will the new cabinet secretary, when she meets the chief constable, instruct or request a fresh search for that crucial document?”
It was a baptism of fire for Angela Constance, the newly-appointed Justice Minister, who was seldom out of the spotlight in her previous post, where she did the heavy lifting for former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Scotland’s appalling record on drug deaths.
She told Mr Findlay she has always appreciated his “deep interest in our criminal justice system on this and a range of matters” and that she was “very shortly” to have a meeting with Police Scotland’s Chief Constable Iain Livingstone, who is soon to retire from office.
She added: “From the briefing that I have received from my officials and the extensive questions that I have already put to them, I am aware that there have been five reports on issues in and around call handling thus far.
“I therefore urge members to go back to and look at those reports and the recommendations that were made and to look at the progress that has been made. My door is always open to any supplementary information that needs to be drawn to my attention.”
Fat chance of that happening. And she didn’t get off the hook that easily. LibDem Willie Rennie wanted to know what her response is to reports that Police Scotland call handlers “used a fake system for eight years”.
Justice Minister Angela Constance, LibDem Willie Rennie, Conservative Jamie Greene and Labour justice spokesperson Pauline McNeill.
Angela Constance added: “Although it is a matter for Police Scotland, any suggestion that callers to Police Scotland were not having their calls properly prioritised is clearly unacceptable.
“I have assurances from Police Scotland that this historical practice was limited to a single regional force and that it is no longer in use anywhere in Scotland and has not been since 2015.
“Police Scotland call handling has been completely overhauled since the creation of a single national service and policing continues to be a priority for this Government.”
Willie Rennie insisted: “The Scottish Police Federation warned about the dumping of calls at the time, so the Government should have known about the issue. Back in 2015, I also raised the alarm repeatedly about the failings of the newly centralised Police Scotland.
“Those systematic failings led to the tragic deaths of Lamara Bell and John Yuill, but we were not told that call handlers used a fake system with a fictitious call sign.
“It was used to hide the chaos, and anxious members of the public had their calls ignored. The call sign was DUMY. Did ministers or officials know about call sign DUMY?”
Ms Constance replied: “I am not aware of any information that suggests that ministers were advised of that at the time. In terms of the issue at hand, my officials in the police division have discussed the issue, as you would expect, directly with the relevant Police Scotland division. [She didn’t say which division was involved].
“Police Scotland has stated that, although the call sign existed, it was used when calls were at a peak so that they could be put into a holding system until they could be dealt with. Police Scotland does not believe that any calls were dropped due to its use. That said, Police Scotland makes it clear that it is not an acceptable approach at this time.
“With regard to the tragic and painful loss of life on the M9 to which Mr Rennie referred, I say directly to him that Police Scotland has given my officials categorical assurances that the historical call-handling issue is not related to the tragic death of Mr Yuill and Ms Bell.
“A fatal accident inquiry is about to commence soon with regard to that matter, and I cannot add any further comment on it at this stage.”
But Willie Rennie persisted: “I am afraid that this is the culture that the Government has established—to spin and manipulate to avoid the truth coming out. That response also lays bare the abject failure of governance, because the Scottish Police Authority should have spotted the issue. Will the cabinet secretary now commit to wholesale reform of the governance arrangements for the police service?”
Jamie Green, the Conservative spokesperson, said: “The cabinet secretary has said that call handling has improved, but the reality is that, last year, hundreds of thousands of calls to Police Scotland went unanswered or were dropped by the caller.
“Around the revelation—I should add that it is a scandal—has anyone gone back in time to review what happened to those calls that went into the ether? What was the exact consequence of not dealing with those calls?
“More importantly, can we get categorical reassurance from the new cabinet secretary that that practice did, indeed, end in 2015 and has not happened once since then? Serious questions remain unanswered, and someone must pay the price for that scandal.”
Labour’s Pauline McNeill said: “The call centre system was designed to redirect 101 calls to make response times look better, and the BBC reported today that some calls went unattended as a result of that.
“The cabinet secretary says that she is not aware that the practice existed in any other parts of the force. However, does she agree that Police Scotland should never again allow pressures to meet certain response times and targets to lead to such a practice?
Chief Constable Ian Livingstone who is in charge of Police Scotland.
“Given that the chief constable, who is leaving Police Scotland, has pleaded with the Government to fund the police to ensure that the 101 service, which is a vital public service, continues to provide the best service that it can, will the cabinet secretary assure members that she will make sure that the 101 service will operate effectively and be adequately funded?”
Angela Constance said: “I consider this to be a serious matter, albeit one of historical practice. Nonetheless, it is imperative that we continue to govern, scrutinise and hold ourselves and one another to account, because there must be the strongest possible confidence in our police force and all related practices.
“On funding, I have already intimated that we will invest nearly £1.5 billion in policing, which is a resource increase of 6.3 per cent, or £80 million. As Ms McNeill will appreciate, I will scrutinise that budget with great care and detail as we move forward.”
Up until two years ago all calls to Police 101 were charged at 15 pence plus Vat.
The charging was introduced as result of the Westminster Government awarding and agreeing a commercial contract with Cable and Wireless to put the 101 national phone system into place.
The result of this stealth tax was that aside of hundreds of millions of pounds being levied year on year –
A) People could not use their inclusive minutes to make a call
B) People without credit on their phones could not call 101.
As a result many many calls to report a crime, or a crime in progress, or give information just did not happen.
Alternatively it also resulted in some people using the free 999 call inappropriately to make calls that were more suited to a lower priority call to police. But of course all local police numbers were removed from public view albeit that they still very much exist.
Altogether a truly retrograde step where over the years millions of calls that could and should have been made were not made. An absolute blocker to reporting a crime, or an incident or to providing information.
And that is why some two years ago, the UK government decided to stop charging people to report a crime or contact the police.
We don’t hear much about this from rent-a-mouths like Willie Rennie. In fact you don’t hear anything.
Aye Willie, charging folk to speak to the police – cat got your tongue on that.