Justice

That the Parliament recognises the key role played by civilian staff in Scotland’s police forces in helping to protect communities; believes that the role they play is essential to ensuring that police officers can perform their main role of keeping Scotland’s communities safe; shares the growing concern that cuts to civilian posts are taking police officers off the front line to perform tasks better suited to civilian staff; notes that the number of civilian staff is now at its lowest level across Scotland since 2005 and believes that such cuts are detrimental to the ability of the police service to protect the public, and in the interests of the future of policing in Scotland, calls on the Scottish Government to undertake an independent audit of cuts implemented or planned to civilian posts and report the outcome to the Parliament.