Police will have less computer support to fight crime than a washing machine repairman, it has been claimed.
The Scottish Police Authority (SPA), the civilian oversight body for the new single police force, said ministers have “underestimated” the cost of integrating the computer systems of the old eight forces.
They have been given a £12 million integration budget for the next three years, almost the same as the ICT budget of an organisation a tenth of Police Scotland’s size, Holyrood’s Justice Sub-Committee on Policing heard.
The SPA may have to sell off police buildings to make up the shortfall, its chairman Vic Emery told the committee.
Labour MSP Graeme Pearson said: “It seems to me that the guy that comes and fits my washing machine has better IT support for his product delivery than we have for a police officer.”
Mr Emery said: “I don’t disagree with any of that. We need to work, and we are working, closely with the police so that they can deliver their obligations to us, and so that we can deliver them to you and the public.”
Conservative MSP Margaret Mitchell asked if the £12 million integration budget was “realistic or reasonably accurate”.
SPA interim chief executive Andrea Quinn said: “I have previously said that it was underestimated, and once the blueprint and strategy has been agreed I think it will show that it has been underestimated.
“What should the number be? I don’t know but that’s what the strategy will tell us.
“In our professional view, when you look at an external company and its turnover and what it would invest in ICT it’s a lot more than £12 million over three years.”
SPA chief information officer Martin Leven said the old Scottish Police Services Authority, which had an annual budget of around £105 million, spent £3.5 million a year on ICT.
Police Scotland, with an annual budget of £1.2 billion, has been given almost the same amount on average to integrate the ICT systems of eight forces.