The chief constable of Scotland’s largest police force has floated the idea of a single force to serve the whole country. In his most radical speech to date, Steve House, who heads Strathclyde Police, called for specialist units within individual forces to cover the entire country and a new model for police funding. But he also called for a debate on the “elephant in the room”, which is a single Scottish force.

Mr House is one of the most senior officers to have called for a reduction in the number of police forces. Paddy Tomkins, the former HM chief inspector of constabulary, called for a single force to be considered in 2004 and earlier this year his successor, Bill Skelly, said it was inevitable. Speaking to police officers, officials, and ministers at the Holyrood conference on the Future of Scottish Policing in Edinburgh, Mr House said there are “clear drivers for a reduction in the number of forces” and that the operational impetus had been strengthened by a “financial imperative”.

Scotland’s top chief constables are involved in an unprecedented public disagreement over radical crime-fighting reforms that could see the whole country served by just one police force. Pat Shearer, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos), has issued a sharp rebuke to Strathclyde’s chief constable over his support for a single force to replace the eight existing organisations.

The debate pitches Mr Shearer, who runs the country’s smallest force, against Steven House, who is charge of the largest. Mr House, of Strathclyde Police, told a major conference last week that the “elephant in the room” of a single force for Scotland needed to be approached, adding that there was a clear “financial imperative” to do so.

THE chief constable of Scotland's largest police force area fears crime rates will rise and parts of his patch will lose officers if a single Scottish force is created. The issue of a single force was put back on the agenda recently by Steve House, Chief Constable of Strathclyde, who said there was a clear "financial imperative" to look at the possibility.

But his Northern Constabulary counterpart, Ian Latimer, said centralising police control would be a "simplistic" option which could concentrate cover in areas of high crime and remove officers from the Highlands and Islands. He said this could lead to the end of Northern's community policing model, which has helped it to maintain low crime rates and high detection rates.

Legislation to create single police and fire services has passed the final hurdle at the Scottish Parliament. The Police and Fire Reform Bill sets out plans for Scotland's eight regional police and fire services merge into respective single units by April. The vote passed 101 votes to six, with 14 abstentions.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has said the unification is largely cost-driven but pledges to make "a virtue out of a necessity". The bill was designed to create estimated "efficiency savings" of £1.7bn over 15 years, largely through reducing duplication of senior officer roles and back-office staff.