British Transport Police officer terms and conditions will not be in place by integration date

23 Jan 2018

Deputy chief constable Iain Livingstone has told MSPs on the Justice Committee that “significant issues” with the BTP merger “will not be resolved by 1 April 2019”.

The issues identified by Mr Livingstone included officer terms and conditions, pensions, IT and pre-existing third party contracts.

He said work would continue after integration to resolve them, but when asked by shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr when the issues would be resolved, Mr Livingstone said: “I can’t answer that specifically.”

In response to questioning from Scottish Conservative MSP Maurice Corry, Mr Livingstone added: “This is not a merger of like with like. I can’t give you comfort we have resolved the issue.”

The new chair of the Scottish Police Authority Board, Susan Deacon, also confirmed they were not seeking to appoint a member to the board with experience of the railway industry, as was recommended in a recent report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland.

Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr said:

“Iain Livingstone has confirmed today what we all know – which is that the SNP’s reckless plan to merge British Transport Police with Police Scotland by next year won’t work and will cause further turmoil if it goes ahead.

“Tomorrow the Scottish Conservatives will put this issue to a vote, so the full parliament can have its say.

“It is time the merger was put on hold before any more damage is done.

“Police Scotland can’t be expected to manage this major overhaul when it is already in the middle of a leadership crisis.

“Nicola Sturgeon and Michael Matheson must listen for once.”