Who We Are

The Scottish Police Authority is independent of both the Scottish Government and policing. It is the primary governance body for policing in Scotland, and was established as a public body on 1 April 2013 by the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012. It was set up to hold the Chief Constable to account; promote, support and oversee improvement in policing. It is also responsible for the management and delivery of Forensic Services in Scotland and Independent Custody Visiting Scotland.

In this section, find out more about the Authority’s priorities, the Board and the Leadership team.

Who We Are

What We Do

The Scottish Police Authority is responsible for maintaining policing. It has four specific areas of responsibility:

promoting the policing principles

supporting continuous improvement

keeping policing under review

holding the Chief Constable to account.

This section tells you in outline what the Authority does.

What We Do

Complaints

Are you dissatisfied with the service you have received from policing in Scotland?

The Scottish Police Authority, Police Scotland and the Police Investigations and Reviews Commissioner (PIRC) all have a role to play in considering complaints about policing in Scotland.

In this section, find out who to direct your complaint to. We also welcome written communication in Gaelic (see our Gaelic Language Plan).

Complaints

Publication Library

The Authority is committed to conducting its activity in an open and transparent manner, and in a way that builds trust and confidence in policing.

In this section we aim to make as much of our information as possible available, accessible and searchable. Our publication scheme summarises all of the information we publish. This aims to improve public access to the information we hold and encouraging public awareness of, and participation in, the decisions we make.

Where possible we provide a suitable HTML alternative and / or make documents accessible. Please contact us if you would like to request a corporate publication in an alternative format.

Scottish Police Authority - Publication Scheme

Committee

Topic

FOI 2024/25-041 - Police Scotland use of cameras with AI

Published: 19 July 2024

Published: 02 April 2024

Publication

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FOI 2023/24-072 - How and why new Chief Constable appointed

Published: 05 January 2024

Publication

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Publication Library

FOI 2024/25-041 - Police Scotland use of cameras with AI

FOI 2024/25-037 - Foreign national offenders' fingerprints sent to New Scotland Yard

FOI 2024/25-033 - Asylum seekers' fingerprints sent to New Scotland Yard

FOI 2024/25-021 - Number of FOI requests directed to Police Scotland

FOI 2024/25-001 - Record of media reports about activities of Police Scotland

FOI 2024-25-061 - Police Scotland's Housing Strategy - island impact assessment

FOI 2023/24-110 - Correspondence between Police Scotland and Monaghan Mushrooms

FOI 2023/24-103 - Changes to Police Scotland's Records management policy

FOI 2023/24-101 - Chief Constable's tax arrangement and number / tax arrangements of staff who reside in England

FOI 2023/24-100 - Police Scotland process for responding to unaccompanied asylum seekers who present at PS premises

FOI 2023/24-096 - email address for Chief Constable 2012-2027

FOI 2023/24-072 - How and why new Chief Constable appointed