Police Scotland recorded spikes in officers reporting sick during key World Cup dates in June, forcing managers to cover gaps in shifts. The force said there was some evidence that the tournament influenced absence rates, which is significant because police work requires round-the-clock staffing and cannot rely on standard office hours.

Scotland played Haiti, Morocco and Brazil during the month, with matches held in the United States at late or inconvenient UK times. Unlike Police Scotland, wider Scottish workplace sickness rates remained below the 0.95% baseline, while the force’s overall absence rate was about 7% from April to June; officers lost 39,078 working days to long-term absence and civilian staff lost 16,920.