Thank you. And we will now move on to the next item of business, which is First Minister's

questions. And at question number one, I call Douglas Ross.

Thank you very much, Mr President. And I remind the Chamber that my wife is a serving officer

with Police Scotland. As part of a pilot in the north-east of Scotland, frontline officers

are being told to no longer investigate certain crimes.

S&P funding cuts are forcing dedicated officers to ignore criminal acts.

Some victims of crime will report it to the police, only to be told it is not important enough

to investigate.

So will the First Minister tell us which crimes won't be investigated?

First Minister.

First of all, President Officer, of course, Police Scotland's funding is not being cut.

I'm pleased to say that despite UK Government austerity and recognition of the crucial

role that police officers pay.

Of course, we've just announced this week an excellent pay offer that I'm pleased

that police officers have accepted.

The service is receiving an additional 80 million in resource funding in 23-24.

Again, from the North East pilot that Douglas Ross mentions,

let me quote directly from the news release that the police put out in that region.

It says, on some occasions, crimes are reported where there is no associated threat, no risk, no harm, no vulnerability,

and this is the important bit, also no proportionate

lines of inquiry for local police officers to investigate.

When this happens, our staff will inform the caller that the inquiry has been recorded,

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