Police Scotland: The £85,000-a-day overtime bill revealed
The Scottish Police Federation is warning the overtime bill is a ‘direct consequence’ of the ‘chronic shortage’ of officers.
Police Scotland is spending £85,000 every single day on overtime, it has been revealed, amid warnings of a chronically overstretched force.
Figures published in the 1919 Magazine show £28.15 million was spent on officer overtime in 2024/25, along with an additional £3.4m on police staff overtime. This is a combined increase of 10 per cent on the previous year.
This figure is still lower than the 2022/23 overtime bill when there was a major policing operation following the death of the late Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral Castle.
However, there are concerns about how much this may rise for this financial year, given US President Donald Trump’s recent visit and the sold-out Oasis gigs at Murrayfield later this month.
The Scottish Police Federation (SPF) has warned the costs are a “direct consequence” of the “chronic shortage of police officers across the country”.
SPF general secretary David Kennedy said: “As demand on policing continues to increase - whether through major events, public safety operations or everyday calls for service - there simply are not enough officers to meet the workload within normal working hours.
“The reality is that overtime is no longer a contingency - it has become a necessity to maintain even the most basic levels of public safety. This is unsustainable, both financially and in terms of officer wellbeing.
“Officers are regularly being asked to sacrifice their rest days, family time and personal health to plug gaps caused by years of underinvestment in policing. We cannot continue to rely on a shrinking workforce to deliver a growing remit.
“The rising cost of overtime is not a budget management issue. It is a symptom of a wider crisis in police numbers that must be addressed urgently through meaningful investment in recruitment, retention and support for serving officers.”
In 2022/23, the year the Queen died, £42,689,162 was spent on officers’ overtime. This fell to £25,305,080 the following year. However, it rose to £28,150,447 for the most recent financial year.
Pauline McNeill, Scottish Labour’s justice spokeswoman, said: “These eye-watering figures lay bare the immense pressure Police Scotland is under.
“Police officer numbers have collapsed over recent years and big events have piled pressure onto remaining officers. There is no evidence that the Scottish Government is taking any serious steps to address this, therefore this is likely to continue.
“Increasing reliance on overtime is costing Police Scotland thousands of pounds a day and exhausting police officers. Police officers cannot keep being forced to go above and beyond to paper over the cracks of SNP failure. The SNP must work with Police Scotland to ensure it has the officers it needs to keep our communities safe.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We are investing a record £1.64 billion for policing this year, and our continued investment enabled Police Scotland to take on more recruits in the last financial year than at any time since 2013, with further intakes planned throughout 2025.
“Scotland continues to have more police officers per capita than England and Wales and recorded crime has fallen by more than half since 1991.”