Police Scotland on care, continuity and service life

As part of a UK Defence Journal series examining how Scottish public sector organisations support staff with links to the Armed Forces, Police Scotland offers an example of how those commitments are delivered within a national emergency service.

In response to a Freedom of Information request, Police Scotland said it currently has 793 officers and staff recorded as belonging to the Armed Forces Community. This includes reservists, veterans, service leavers and cadet force adult volunteers. The force does not record spouses or dependants of serving personnel within its HR systems.

The disclosure forms part of a wider effort to understand how public bodies recognise, support and engage Armed Forces Community staff in practice, and how national commitments under the Armed Forces Covenant are reflected within day-to-day working arrangements. Police Scotland, one of the UK’s largest police services, said the figure reflects staff whose Armed Forces links are formally captured through internal systems.

Scale and visibility

Viewed in context, the figure of 793 provides an indication of the scale of Armed Forces representation within the service. Police Scotland employs more than 23,000 officers and staff nationwide, meaning recorded totals reflect both self-identification and the mechanisms used to capture that information centrally. As with many large public bodies, visibility at organisational level is shaped not only by workforce composition, but by the reporting routes through which staff choose to engage and seek support. Rather than operating a formal registration process, Police Scotland delivers Armed Forces support through a network-based model. In its FOI response, the force confirmed that it does not record how many individuals have contacted a central Armed Forces lead in recent years, reflecting an approach that prioritises accessibility at local level.

Police Scotland said, however, that it maintains a Veterans Champions Network, alongside an Armed Forces and Reservists Champion, both of whom can be contacted by officers and staff at any time for advice, guidance and signposting. The model is intended to ensure support is readily available across divisions, rather than concentrated within a single reporting channel. The force confirmed that it does not hold central monitoring information on Armed Forces-related flexible working requests, issuing a formal “not held” response under section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act. Many such arrangements are managed locally through established HR processes, rather than recorded separately.

Over the past three years, Police Scotland supported eight mobilisation periods and approved 356 requests for paid time off to attend reservist training. These requests were made by 111 officers and staff. The figures point to sustained reservist activity across the organisation, even where wider Armed Forces-related support is not captured through formal central datasets.

External recognition and leadership engagement

Police Scotland is a signatory to the Armed Forces Covenant and holds the Ministry of Defence’s Gold Award under the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme. The award recognises employers that demonstrate long-term and proactive support for reservists, veterans and the wider Armed Forces Community. In a statement to UK Defence Journal, Assistant Chief Constable Steve Johnson said military veterans and reservists bring valuable skills into policing and described the force’s relationship with the Armed Forces as long established.

“Military veterans and reservists bring valuable skills into policing and we have a long-established relationship with the armed forces,” he said. Johnson said Police Scotland was proud to hold the Gold Award under the Ministry of Defence’s Employer Recognition Scheme, which formally acknowledges the pledges made under the Armed Forces Covenant.

He said the force has dedicated Veterans Champions within local divisions who can provide specialist advice and support to HM Forces personnel, contribute to local and national veteran events and work closely with partners to signpost staff to relevant third-sector organisations where required. Alongside Armed Forces-specific arrangements, Johnson said Police Scotland also has a range of internal mechanisms in place to support staff wellbeing, including an employee assistance programme, a wellbeing champion network, post-trauma assessment and mental fitness training.

“Policing is a rewarding and demanding vocation and we take our legal and moral duty to the safety and wellbeing of all officers and staff, including those who serve or have served in the military, extremely seriously,” he said.

As a veteran himself, Johnson said his transition from the Royal Navy into Police Scotland had highlighted both the personal and professional benefits former service personnel can bring into the organisation.

What the data shows and where it stops

The Police Scotland case study illustrates both the scale of Armed Forces participation within a national emergency service and the practical limits of central measurement. While the organisation can provide a clear headline figure and detailed reservist training data, other forms of support are embedded within local management structures.

That approach mirrors a broader pattern emerging across the series, where operational organisations place emphasis on local delivery and accessible networks, particularly in environments shaped by shift work and dispersed teams. As with other public bodies examined, the absence of centrally held data does not indicate an absence of support, but rather reflects how that support is structured, accessed and recorded in practice.

A developing picture

This article forms part of Armed Forces at Work in Scotland, a UK Defence Journal reporting series examining how Scottish public sector organisations support members of the Armed Forces Community within their workforce. The series draws on Freedom of Information disclosures, published policy and organisational comment to build a picture of how support operates in practice across NHS boards, national services and other public authorities.

Following the initial case study, Police Scotland provides a further reference point, illustrating how Armed Forces Community support is structured within a national emergency service operating at scale. The organisation’s ability to quantify staff with Armed Forces links, alongside its reliance on locally delivered support networks, highlights a different operational model shaped by workforce size, geography and frontline working patterns.

Armed Forces at work inside Scotland’s largest NHS board

Future articles will examine how other organisations approach the same issues, including bodies that place greater emphasis on local management arrangements or hold more limited central data. Taken together, the series aims to explore how visibility, leadership ownership and staff-led networks influence support for the Armed Forces Community across Scotland’s public sector, as well as where the boundaries of measurement and consistency continue to sit.