COP26 policing promise

World leaders will arrive in Glasgow for the major UN climate conference for two weeks from October 31, requiring a large Police Scotland presence.

Chief Superintendent Mark Sutherland, divisional commander for Greater Glasgow, said day-to-day policing would be affected during the event, but the force would be available.

Speaking to East Renfrewshire councillors, he said: “Clearly there will be an impact on policing.

“Never before in the UK have so many world leaders come together. It is certainly one of, if not the biggest, policing operations that has ever been mounted in the UK.

“That will have an impact on policing, I won’t try and deny that. We are going to lose resources from day to day policing to police the conference.

“What I will reassure the cabinet is that if members of the public require policing services during that period then policing services will be available.”

Police Scotland is working “very hard” on a “suitable and sustainable policing model that will service East Renfrewshire during that period”, he added.

“There will be some things that we won’t be doing so much of, and what we will be doing is turning the levers off on some of our lower risk activities.”

While lower level enquiries are likely to be paused, Ch Spt Sutherland said: “We will be focusing our available resources that are left into our response and community policing services.”