Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson, Liam McArthur MSP has today revealed that the national force has spent over £115 million on overtime payments since it was created 2013.
The new figures, obtained by the Scottish Liberal Democrats through a freedom of information request, show that £115.43 million has been spent on overtime since Police Scotland was established in 2013. The figures are set to rise in the current year with Police Scotland attributing this to specific one off costs such as the terror threat level being raised to critical last year.
Allowing our children to attend schools and using other public buildings in the city without checking they had been properly built and maintained has today been described as "scandalous" by Edinburgh West MP Christine Jardine.
Ms Jardine was commenting on a report by Audit Scotland, following the collapse of a wall at Edinburgh's Oxgangs Primary School in January 2016, which highlights failures by Edinburgh City Council to ensure that proper building and safety standards were followed.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Jo Swinson has today highlighted the case of a 10 year old girl afraid to leave the house because of recent high profile threats against Muslims and urged the Scottish and UK governments to clamp down on Islamophobia.
Jo Swinson said:
"It's deeply disheartening that a 10 year old girl is afraid to go outside, just because of her faith.
"The impact of rising bigotry in our country is heart-breaking. It's important that we all send love to Muslim friends and fellow citizens today.
Speaking in response to the latest Scottish GDP figures which show annual growth of 0.8% in 2017 in Scotland compared to 1.8% in the UK, the economy spokesperson for the Scottish Liberal Democrats councillor Carolyn Caddick said:
"People will be disappointed that for all their speeches SNP ministers have not been able to keep pace with the growth in the rest of the UK. UK growth itself is pretty pathetic.
Commenting on reports that NHS Tayside used money donated to charity to pay for a new computer system, Scottish Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:
"There have been major question marks over financial management in NHS Tayside for some time.
"The Health Secretary must meet with the health board immediately to reassure the public and ensure that a plan is put in place to get NHS Tayside back on track.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has today called for Scottish Enterprise to answer questions over what action it has taken to prevent the proposed closure of the Pinneys seafood plant in Annan as he revealed that Liberal Democrats had raised concerns about the firm's future four years ago.
Swinson's report, which outlines the use of plastics by all major Easter egg manufacturers, highlights the need for companies to cut down the use of plastics to protect our oceans and reduce the amount of unnecessary plastic waste ending up in landfills.
Key findings of the report:
• According to recent figures, 147.7 million hollow Easter Eggs are sold each year.
An average Easter Egg box as found in this report contains 22 grams of plastic packaging, so this could mean over 3,000 tonnes of plastic waste per year from hollow Easter Eggs alone.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has today marked one year since the introduction of the Scottish Government's new mental health strategy, highlighting missed targets, falling mental health performance and rising suicides. He has called for substantive additional actions to end the "scandal of long waits and long journeys."
