Increasing numbers of senior police officers in Scotland are suffering from poor mental health exacerbated by understaffing and high demand, the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (ASPS) has said.

Speaking on World Mental Health Day, ASPS President Rob Hay said that Superintendents’ jobs had become harder over the past 11 years, since Police Scotland was formed in 2013, with most officers working longer hours than their workforce agreement.

Meanwhile, in England and Wales, the Police Superintendents’ Association (PSA) has described a “morale and wellbeing crisis” among policing’s most senior operational leaders.

The PSA shared results from its latest survey, carried out last year, which showed significant drops in the level of pride felt with being in the police service, and in the number of members who would recommend joining policing.

Just 52% of respondents said their personal motivation was high – the lowest ever recorded. In addition, 66% said morale was low in their force, only 38% feel valued, and just 32% would recommend policing to others.

It called on the NPCC, Home Office and College of Policing to carry out a benchmarking exercise to understand the current wellbeing and occupational health offering across all forces. It also wants fully resourced occupational health provision in all forces in order to remove the ‘postcode lottery’ of wellbeing support.

Other recommendations include a formal requirement for all forces to self-assess their occupational health provision under the Bluelight Wellbeing Framework; and for there to be greater funding for the National Police Wellbeing Service to enable them to embed the new wellbeing app and address the inconsistency of support across forces.

Rob Hay said that the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents shared the concerns raised by their English and Welsh colleagues at the PSA.

He said: “The increasing demand on Scottish Superintendents has been unrelenting since the inception of Police Scotland, 11 years ago. The number of senior officers has reduced in that time – from 210 officers in 2013 to as low as 140 in 2024.

“At the same time, spans of command, daily demand, public scrutiny and expectation have all increased. For 11 years, the job has only become harder.

“With over 97% of officers working longer than their workforce agreement of 40 hours per week – itself higher than the 35-hour working week in many public-sector occupations – is it any wonder that we have seen increasing numbers of senior officers suffering poor mental health?”

Rob said that Police Scotland talked a lot about wellbeing, but that it was “time to put its money where its mouth is”. He called on the force to “halt the decline in numbers, address breaches of the workforce agreement, and finally settle the pay claim that has been outstanding since May”.