Scottish police forces face recruitment freeze due to pension issues

The problem stems from the fact that, unlike in England and Wales, there is no centralised budget for pensions.

Strathclyde Joint Police Board communications officer Vanessa Ewing said: "Police pension in Scotland are facing a black hole of £51m and there is nowhere to get that money from."

She added: "Because we didn’t centralise our budgets along with England and Wales in 2005 we are stuck with a massive issue.

"Our pension schemes are out of control. There has been a significant increase in the number of people reaching retirement, the budgets have already been set and there just isn’t enough money."

The government, she explained, were refusing to help – saying that the money had to be found from somewhere else.

Ewing commented: "We’ve started a recruitment drive for the police in Scotland, and the last intake is due in March, but now we might have to put a freeze on recruitment because the money for pensions has to come from somewhere."