Police Scotland Spends £500,000 Compensating Officers Over Trump Visit

Published: 22 August 2025. The English Chronicle Desk

Police Scotland has paid out £500,000 in compensation to officers who were unable to take time off during Donald Trump’s visit to his golf resorts earlier this summer. The extraordinary expense highlights the strain placed on policing resources during the former US president’s stay in Scotland, where he hosted Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Scottish First Minister John Swinney at his properties in South Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire.

The high-security operation in July, followed weeks later by a separate visit from US Vice President JD Vance, forced hundreds of officers to cancel their leave, prompting the force to “buy back” time off in lieu. Under Police Scotland’s policy, officers who miss scheduled rest time can either take it within three months or be compensated financially.

Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs told a Scottish Police Authority meeting in Glasgow that the sheer scale of operations this summer had left the force with no option but to compensate officers at a significant cost. “Regrettably, the spend for us in the month of July alone was £0.5m because officers weren’t able to get the time back, which to me demonstrates there is a real demand on the service and it is largely through events,” he said. He acknowledged that the trend around time off in lieu (TOIL) was becoming a growing challenge, adding: “We don’t want officers at work when they should be off, so it is regrettable that we’re in that position of having to compensate them through payment.”

Deputy Chief Constable Jane Connors also highlighted the mounting pressures on staff, telling the meeting: “It has been a very busy summer for policing in Scotland, with both visits as well as providing day-to-day security across the country. Our staff are very tired after a long summer.”

The scale of resources deployed for the visits has been controversial. Ahead of Mr Trump’s arrival, Tiff Lynch, national chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, criticised the demands placed on forces, remarking: “Let’s be clear: this is a private visit by a head of state to play golf. And we are pulling 1,500 officers—roughly a third of the size of an average police force in England and Wales—away from their normal duties to support it. That should stop anyone in their tracks.”

The revelations underline the financial and operational pressures created by high-profile visits, raising questions over how policing budgets are managed when private events by world figures require such extensive public resources.