Scotland’s Chief Constable Jo Farrell has landed taxpayers with an eye-watering £134,000 bill to help her buy a second home, the Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The police chief – who earns £270,000-a-year – has bought a £595,000 second home in an upmarket Edinburgh suburb while keeping on her £1 million five-bedroomed family home 100 miles away in Northumberland.
Police Scotland’s annual accounts – due to be published later this month – reveal Ms Farrell received relocation expenses of £69,901 – while oversight body the taxpayer-funded Scottish Police Authority (SPA) paid out additional “tax costs” of £64,525.
It is thought that part of the expenses claim relates to Land and Building Transaction Tax (LBTT) and Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) – a controversial extra tax introduced by the SNP government for all second homeowners.
Details of the huge bill come just days after the Chief Constable demanded an extra £140 million from the Scottish government and said Police Scotland was at a ‘crossroads’ financially and it would have to slash officer numbers if ministers short-changed it.
The “benefits in kind” attributed by the SPA to Ms Farrell are the equivalent of four new police recruits’ starting salary of £31,400.
Last night Scottish Conservative leader, Russell Findlay, MSP, hit out at the SPA approved reimbursement and called for a probe into the rules on police relocation expenses.
He said: ‘Struggling frontline officers and the paying public might question whether such huge sums of taxpayers’ cash should be spent on a second home for a chief constable who’s on more than £260,000.
Scotland’s Chief Constable Jo Farrell has landed taxpayers with an eye-watering £134,000 bill to help her buy a second home
The police chief – who earns £270,000-a-year – has bought a £595,000 second home in an upmarket Edinburgh suburb while keeping on her £1 million family home in Northumberland
Details of the huge bill come just days after the Chief Constable demanded an extra £140 million from the Scottish government and said Police Scotland was at a ‘crossroads’ financially
‘This highly generous deal must now be subject to proper scrutiny and a full public explanation from Police Scotland, the SPA and the SNP government. If such largesse is within the rules, then the rules should be looked at.
‘Taxpayers are sick of being relentlessly hammered by SNP ministers who far too often spend their cash with reckless abandon.’
Under ‘Remuneration’ in Police Scotland’s annual accounts it is noted: ‘Jo Farrell received taxable relocation expenses of £69,901 (£134,426 including tax costs paid). These costs are in line with the Chief Officer relocation procedure. The costs facilitate the reimbursement of the incremental accommodation costs upon the recruitment or transfer of Chief Officers.’
The rules on chief officer relocation expenses state the retention of a second home may be considered only in “exceptional circumstances” and that LBTT and ADS may be eligible for reimbursement.
It is understood the Chief Constable, who joined Police Scotland in October 2023, makes frequent trips back to the Northumberland home she bought in May 2023 with her retired police officer husband Peter.
In August 2024, the couple bought a two-bedroom apartment in a well-known property hotspot in central Edinburgh.
The total LBTT and ADS tax due on a property worth £595,000 would total £68,500
Due to strong demand in the capital, similar properties increase in value by an average of 5 per cent annually, meaning the Farrells could benefit from a £150,000 uplift in just five years.
Former MSP, shadow Justice Secretary and Assistant Chief Constable, Graeme Pearson, said Police Scotland regulations on relocation expenses was not designed to support the purchase of a second home.
The ex-Director General of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, said: ‘One would hope that professional senior officers would bear in mind the additional pressures their expenses place on Police Scotland which is currently under tremendous pressure in relation to its budgets.
‘I don’t imagine it was envisaged that chief officers would be able to access these additional privileges in order to purchase a second home whilst maintaining their own home elsewhere, particularly in the context of the current economic stresses that Police Scotland are working against.’
In 2017, the SPA came in for fierce criticism when it sanctioned a £67,000 relocation package and an additional £53,000 personal tax liability for Deputy Chief Constable Rose Fitzpatrick who had transferred from the Metropolitan Police, with Audit Scotland warning it “did not represent a good use” of public funds.
In Police Scotland’s 2023 accounts, it was revealed that Deputy Chief Constable Jane Connors received £61,889 in relocation expenses but notably this was in relation to the “costs of moving home” as opposed to buying a second property.
Ms Farrell’s £134,400 “benefits in kind” is the highest of any Chief Constable in the history of Police Scotland which was established in April 2013 – the combined expenses attributed to the three Chief Constables who preceded her over a ten year period amounted to just £43,900.
In comparison to Police Scotland, police forces in England impose strict limitations on removal expenses payable to chief officers who relocate from another force.
Cleveland Police will pay only a maximum of £3,000, Durham Constabulary – Chief Constable Farrell’s former force – cap removal expenses at £8,000, West Yorkshire have a limit of £26,000, while Northumbria Police, where Ms Farrell was assistant chief constable, placed a £30,000 benchmark on relocation expenses in 2023.
Ms Farrell’s reign at Police Scotland got off to a controversial start when she commandeered a police traffic patrol officer to drive her and ex-Durham Constabulary colleague Gary Ridley on a 240-mile round trip from Edinburgh to their homes in Northumberland.
She was forced to issue a public apology over her “error of judgement” in the “Taxigate” scandal which took place at the height of Storm Babet in October 2023 when the country was in lockdown and the public were warned not to travel.
Last week the Scottish Mail on Sunday revealed how Chief Constable Farrell caused furore before she even started in post when she tried to “recruit” disgraced former chief constable Nick Gargan to provide consultancy services.
Gargan was forced to resign from Avon and Somerset Police in 2015 after he was found guilty of eight misconduct charges which included “sexting” on a police issue phone, improperly interfering with a recruitment process, and sharing confidential police emails.
A spokesperson for the Scottish Police Authority said: ‘Any relocation expenses reimbursed to senior officers are paid in line with a relocation procedure which complies with regulations.’
