By Steve Bargeton, political editor

POLICE IN Scotland were last night described as the “Cinderella service” after a new study found that more per head is spent in England and Wales.

A report for the Police Federation showed that spending per head of population is 20% higher in England and 13% higher in Wales. Spending per head on policing last year was £213 in Scotland but £255 in England.

The report’s author, Professor Arthur Midwinter, said the lower spending on policing in Scotland was entirely due to decisions made by Labour and Liberal Democrat ministers in the Scottish Executive over the last eight years.

And last night the Scottish Tories challenged the minority SNP Scottish government to come up with more money in the fight against crime.

“Clearly, the Lib-Lab Pact treated the police as a Cinderella service—that is shameful,” said justice spokesman Bill Aitken. “There are no two ways about it—protection of the public is the primary duty of any government.

“This report shows how the Lib-Lab Pact abdicated that responsibility over their eight years in government. Little wonder that total crime and offences have soared since 1999.

“Scottish Conservatives have pledged to launch the biggest assault on crime and drugs Scotland has ever seen. The challenge for the new minority SNP government is to match our £1 billion blitz, and spend taxpayers’ money on taxpayers’ priorities.

The SNP place the blame on their predecessors. “This is part of the legacy left to the new SNP government by the previous Labour/Liberal administration. They talked big on law and order, but delivered small,” said a government source.

Professor Midwinter noted that because of the Barnett Formula Scotland gets 10% of public spending despite having only 8.5% of the UK population. Compared to UK average spending levels of £100, Scotland spends £109 on education, £112 on health, £116 on housing, £138 in roads, but only £82 on public order, which includes police.

“Analysis of the Scottish budget shows that one reason for the funding gap is the consistently low priority given to police funding since devolution,” he said.

“Whilst the Scottish budget has been growing by 5.6% per annum in real terms, the police budget has only been growing by 3.4% over the same period. This is the direct result of Executive decisions, rather than Whitehall or local government.

“Police funding in local budgets has grown in line with all local services, but below the growth in public spending in the devolved budget.”

Joe Grant, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, said Prof Midwinter’s report is evidence that policing in Scotland has suffered since devolution.

“We’ve had concerns about police funding in Scotland for some time,” he said. “We now have the evidence to show that since devolution we have been very poorly treated and we want the new Scottish Government to give us priority in this spending review.

“If we had been fairly treated we would have been able to deliver a much higher quality police service in Scotland. That is what we want to do now. That is why it has got to be sorted out now.”