John has welcomed yesterday’s (Tuesday) announcement that the interim headquarters of the new Police Service of Scotland will be at Tulliallan Police College and the operating base for the Fire Rescue Service of Scotland at Perth Community Fire Station.

The locations have been chosen by the police and fire services’ respective chief officers’ associations, ACPOS and CFOAS.

John said:

 “I welcome these very sensible choices to make good use of existing facilities. It’s a cost-effective solution and one which will help to ensure a smooth handover to the new national services next April.

“Of course in the long term, the final decision on headquarters locations will be for the new services to make themselves, but for the interim Tulliallan and Perth are convenient choices which can be up and running and ready for leadership teams of the new services to start work right away.

 “The fact that neither of these new HQs is in Glasgow or Edinburgh is also a welcome signal that these will be truly national police and fire and rescue services, serving all parts and all the people of Scotland.”