The Herald newspaper reports today that Scotland’s police chiefs have launched a radical shake-up of the country’s forces.

New plans looking at reducing the number of the country’s forces from eight to either one or three are to be drawn up.

The measures – proposed to combat swingeing budget cuts – are expected to see the number of serving officers in Scotland reduced by thousands.

The decision to investigate the options was taken yesterday at a meeting of the Scottish Policing Board, chaired by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill.

There are currently 17,424 serving officers in Scotland – a record high – but the Scottish Government’s budget of £30 billion will fall by £1.7bn next year and £3.7bn by 2015.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We welcome the work undertaken by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland on efficiencies and cost-saving options.

“However, the Scottish Policing Board agreed that the efficiencies identified would not be enough on their own to meet the likely scale of the financial challenge beyond the next two years.

“We decided that further work should be undertaken to explore structural-reform options to ensure that we can continue to deliver effective frontline policing in the face of reduced budgets. What matters to communities across Scotland is that they can live their lives free from crime, disorder and danger.”

The work, under the auspices of the policing board, will explore a number of restructuring options, but it is understood that there are only two realistically under consideration. One would see the establishment of a nationwide police force, while the other would see three forces set up – with one roughly covering the east of the country, one the west and one the north.

Dumfries and Galloway Chief Constable Patrick Shearer, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers Scotland, said: “Over the last two months, ACPOS has been reviewing the current policing structures in order to identify where efficiencies could be made in terms of our business processes and how we can collaborate more efficiently.

“An initial high-level report was presented to the Scottish Policing Board today that provides analysis in relation to the cost of delivering policing functions across Scotland.”

He added: “The report does not make any specific recommendations about making changes to the current model but identifies that there are benefits which could be accrued.

“The Scottish Government has now agreed to lead the next phase of the work with the close involvement of ACPOS and other partners. The next stage of analysis will involve extensive engagement and consultation with a range of stakeholders, which has not yet been possible in the short timescale required to produce the initial report.”

Stephen Curran, convener of the Strathclyde Joint Police Authority, said the meeting had been helpful given the huge cuts and the efficiency savings required across all forces.

“People need to be reassured about local accountability and I would point out that Strathclyde covers 44% of the Scottish population in an area running from Tiree to Ballantrae, so we know all about preserving local accountability,” he said.

“If it can be done within Strathclyde, it can be done within Scotland. If you don’t look at restructuring now by design, it will end up having to be done by necessity.”

However, he added: “I have two serious concerns about potential cuts and the impact they would have. The first is that because you can’t make police officers redundant, any savings in staff costs will fall disproportionately on police support staff. Also, most of the officers who go will go through retirement, which means you’re losing a lot of experience as you do that.”

Iain Whyte, convener of Lothian and Borders police board, struck a more cautious note. “I think we need to look carefully at all these things but I suspect there are a lot of costs to do with merging forces as much as there are potential savings down the line, and it might be too long and too expensive to get in place,” he said.

However, the plans have drawn criticism, with Martin Greig, police board convener in Grampian, saying: “No economic case has been made for mergers.”

LibDem justice spokesman Robert Brown said: “This is the wrong direction of travel. A ‘one size fits all’ approach to policing in Scotland is a very bad idea and Liberal Democrats will resist this every step of the way. It is bad for democracy, bad for local communities, bad for the police and bad for Scotland.”