Under pressure call centre in staff in Aberdeen and Inverness have been hit by further uncertainty after it emerged Police Scotland has ripped up its timetable for control rooms closures.
An expert yesterday warned Holyrood that morale is already flagging in north and north-east control rooms, where staff have been facing the threat of mothballing for almost two years.
The centres had been slated to close in March next year – but Derek Penman, Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland, told MSPs yesterday that Police Scotland was likely to miss that target, leaving control room workers in limbo.
Following the M9 tragedy, the force halted the mothballing of the Aberdeen and Inverness control rooms until other control rooms were up and running effectively.
The Liberal Democrat’s justice spokeswoman, Alison McInnes, suggested that having such an “open ended” time line for closures was bound to “make the system more unstable”.
The North East MSP asked if there was “any indication of a timescale” for when the call centres might close.
But Mr Penman said: “Not definitively.
“What we have asked in our recommendations is for Police Scotland to plan in detail what they refer to as stages five and six, which is bringing the new control room up in Dundee and then transferring the calls from Inverness, Dundee and Aberdeen down to the central belt.
“We’ve asked for that to be planned out in a high degree of information and have that independently assured and that should then contain the time lines.
“The forecast just now is for March 2016 that was originally put for this stage. Police Scotland has yet to demonstrate or evidence that and I suspect it may slide down further.”
Mr Penman also accepted uncertainty over the future of the control rooms was damaging staff morale.
He said: “I absolutely accept that it may be unsettling for staff to go through this process and it may lead to staff attrition to some extent, but it is also allowing staff to get a more informed picture of where they are.”
Chief Superintendent Alan Speirs of Police Scotland’s Contact Command and Control Division said: “Police Scotland is currently involved in detailed consultation and engagement with our staff.
“The outcome of this consultation will go some way to shaping the future direction of the service. That said, currently there are no dates set for proceeding with stages five and six of the change programme within the north.”