Liam Kerr asks if contracts of officers are being changed.

Police Scotland chief constable Philip Gormley says "I can't" and that he would not be able to do that.

Mr Gormley says the reality is that Police Scotland cannot pay as much as the banks and private companies for IT professionals to protect children online.

He says Police Scotland are working to recruit graduates in this area.

It is about building different levels of expertise in the workforce he says. 

On Monday,  Police Scotland outlined plans to cut officer numbers by 400 as part of its 10-year policing plan.

Chief Constable Phil Gormley said recruitment levels would remain unchanged in the current year, but would begin to slow between 2018-20.

He said resources would be re-directed to frontline operations, amid big financial challenges.

Last December, the spending watchdog said Scotland's police service was  facing a £188m funding gap  by 2020-21.

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Tory MSP Liam Kerr asks about cutting police numbers by 400 by 2020.

Police Scotland chief constable Philip Gormley says no, in fact 300 police officers will be moved from the back office to the community.

He says the point of the three year journey is to take out resource mitigating merging the legacy systems and reintroduce it to policing.

"Police officers do not want to be doing this stuff."

Mr Kerr says the back office function will still require to be done.

It is going to be a phased transormational programme that will be done in an intelligent way, says Mr Gormley.

He says it has been characterised as a cut of 400, but it is a slow down in recruiting after next year, once the banked transormation has occurred Police Scotland can start to take the head count down.

Police Scotland chief constable Philip Gormley says recording crime is always going to be important but is a small part of what needs to be done.

Mr Gormley says there are a number of different challenges and issues that the police are contacted about which do not necessarily fall under the heading of crime.

"How we enable communities to thrive and survive," is highly important he says. 

Committee convener Jenny Marra asks if Mr Flanagan does not consider Police Scotland to be a crisis, would he describe it as challenging.

Mr Flanagan says: "It is clearly challenging.

He says: "We can fix it."

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Police Scotland chief constable Philip Gormley says the operational policing in Scotland is among the best he has seen and the best in the UK.

He says the operational delivery of Police Scotland is good.

Ms Marra asks if the financial situation is a challenge or a threat.

Mr Gorley says: "I think we have a plan to deal with it."

Tory MSP Ross Thomson says looking at the condition of Police Scotland's finances is it not fair to say Police Scotland "is in crisis".

Scottish Police Authority chair of the board Andrew Flanagan says "no I don't think that is the case." 

He says there is now more transparency in the SPA and that a number of public bodies have finance issues currently. 

Labour MSP Jenny Marra asks if Mr Flanagan would not describe this as a crisis, what would he describe it as. 

Mr Flanagan says there are a series of issues that we need to tackle and we need to do so steadily over time. 

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Tory MSP Ross Thomson says his understanding there is a difficulty in recruiting and retaining police staff in the North East.

Police Scotland chief constable Philip Gormley says there are different pressures in different parts of the country, but there is no recruitment issue over the whole country. 

Tory MSP Ross Thomson says "it is deeply worrying that we are losing people" and asks witnesses for a view on that.

Police Scotland chief constable Philip Gormley says police officers generally retire after 30 years of service and there has been no change in this.

The people Police Scotland are recruiting "are inspirational," he says.

He says Police Scotland are recruiting people from 18-50.

"I am inspired by the staff that I have," he says. 

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Police Scotland chief constable Philip Gormley says the force is now dealing with the comples needs around vulnerability which leads to much more complex situations.

Mr Gormley says Police Scotland is having to deal with child abuse, child sexual exploitation and cyber crimes,

He says: "There is a big transformational job to be done here."

The chief constable says Police Scotland need to work within the envelope of budget they are given.

"If I had more resource that would be delightful."

Last week The Herald reported, external : A Scottish Police Authority board member resigned after believing she was punished for raising concerns about transparency at the watchdog.

Moi Ali was informed by SPA chair Andrew Flanagan that it would not be fair for her to participate on the body’s committees after she objected to plans to hold meetings in private.

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Scottish Police Authority chief executive John Foley says the reorganisation of the finance function will certainly help address the issues and the line of accountability will also help.

Mr Foley says the actions should ensure there will not be a repeat of the nine drafts of the SPA accounts.

Tory MSP Ross Thomson raises the issue of damages and claims against the police and asks if the absence of a financial strategy contributed to the difficulty around this issue.

Mr Foley says people do raise claims against police services and he says a financial strategy in isolation would not necessarily have an effect on reducing claims.

Committee convener Jenny Marra asks if it is in the standing orders that board members must let SPA know about anything they are unhappy about before the meetings takes place. 

Scottish Police Authority chair of the board Andrew Flanagan says "it is a professional courtesy" and in his experience board members should always do this.

"It doesn't need to be written down," he says.

SPA chair of the board Andrew Flanagan says: "I think if you take the governance review as a total we have increased the transparency and openness."

Scottish Police Authority chair of the board Andrew Flanagan says he is "very committed to openness and transparency." 

Mr Flanagan says board members must communicate their positions ahead of time and the particular board member in question was not.

He says this was his criticism of the member because there was no openness and transparency from that individual.

Scottish Police Authority chair of the board Andrew Flanagan says the auditor general's figure of £198m actually came from the workings of the SPA.

Mr Flanagan says the SPA's preference was to work with the £60m for one year rather than three.

He says the important thing is the issue is tackled not whether a one year number or a three year number is presented.

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Labour MSP Monica Lennon says isn't the problem that there is a loss of trust.

Mr Flanagan says he conducted a six month review which benchmarked a number of organisations and other police organisations.

He says it is about more openness and transparency.

Labour MSP Monica Lennon says the budget is almost £1bn and asks why it was considered acceptable to present a one line budget.

Scottish Police Authority chief executive John Foley says there had been discussion around this by the members, committees and finance experts and that was approved.

Ms Lennon asks if it was acceptable to have nine drafts of the finances. 

Mr Foley says he accepts that the number of drafts was not acceptable and he would have expected the finance people to do a better job with that.

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Labour MSP Monica Lennon says it sounds like credible people for the financial officer role "don't want to touch Police Scotland with a barge pole".

Mr Foley says that is not the case and he says when he trawled around looking for a suitable financial officer there was simply none available.

Ms Lennon says instead the SPA is paying £950 a day for a secondment, to which Mr Foley says that is cheaper than the headhunters quoted him, which were all over £1,000.