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

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 2025/26-060 - Report to Resources Committee regarding community asset transfer of Portobello Police Station – August 2025

Published: 19 September 2025

Published: 18 June 2024

Publication

View Publication

FOI 2023/24/043 - Guidelines used when communicating about road traffic collisions

Published: 09 October 2023

Publication

View Publication

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Publication Library

FOI 2025/26-060 - Report to Resources Committee regarding community asset transfer of Portobello Police Station – August 2025

FOI 2025/26-049 - Reports and minutes from Exceptional Circumstances Committee June 2023 and August 2023

FOI 2025/26-032 - Information and communications related to non-UK data processing over the past 12 months

FOI 2024/25-122 - Information on countries in which Microsoft process data uploaded to Azure cloud or M365

FOI 2024/25-107 - Communication between Police Scotland and Thales Optronics Ltd

FOI 2024/25-066 - SPA communications about the accreditation of any statistics produced by Police Scotland

FOI 2024/25-065 - Communications between SPA and Police Scotland - accreditation of statistics produced by Police Scotland

FOI 2024/25-060 - Transcript and communications for specific police incident

FOI 2024/25-058 - Number of FTE communications officers and total cost

FOI 2024/25-036 - Spend on small arms ammunition and contracts awarded

FOI 2024/25-035 - Various contracts - communications hardware/software

FOI 2023/24/043 - Guidelines used when communicating about road traffic collisions