Recommendation 40

We have heard that there may be challenges involved with establishing and advertising a new hotline. One challenge may be resourcing. Assistant Chief Constable Spiers told us that there are “a number of challenges that Police Scotland would face depending on the future funding of Police Scotland”119, which may make it difficult to fund another service. Another challenge may be difficulty embedding a new hotline into public consciousness. 109 Q85 110 Q140; Police Scotland’s online portal for reporting crime can be found here: https://www.scotland.police.uk/ secureforms/c3/ 111 Q140 112 Q15 113 Q15 114 Q142 115 Q144 116 Q125 117 Q186 118 Q124 119 Q142 Firearms licensing regulations in Scotland 17 The Cabinet Secretary stated that helplines like the 999 and 101 services already “are well known”120 so, to make a new hotline effective, “you would have to advertise it strongly to ensure that people are aware of it and that it gets into people’s consciousness”.121