Complaints & Conduct Committee

The Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 states that the Authority must keep itself informed of the way Police Scotland deals with relevant complaints with a view to satisfying itself that Police Scotland has suitable arrangements in place. A ‘relevant complaint’ is defined in legislation as a non-criminal complaint by a member of the public about the police, or about an officer or member of staff of the police. The Authority has no legal basis to oversee the performance of the Police and Investigations Reviews Commissioner (PIRC). The Commissioner is invited to attend the Board of the Authority annually to present and discuss her annual report.

The Authority’s Complaints & Conduct Committee fulfils this function by monitoring, overseeing and scrutinising Police Scotland’s handling of ‘relevant’ complaints. The terms of reference for our Complaints and Conduct Committee state that meetings will be used to:

• Monitor the handling of relevant complaints by Police Scotland, seeking information on themes or trends as appropriate, with a view to the Committee satisfying itself that the arrangements maintained by Police Scotland for the handling of relevant complaints are suitable.
• Critically examine reports from HMICS, PIRC, and any other information provided by Police Scotland in relation to complaints about the police and ensure that appropriate improvement plans are implemented, or remedial action is taken within agreed timescales.
• Contribute to and consider the findings of official reviews of complaints matters and ensure that recommendations from such reviews are implemented as appropriate.

To assess the effectiveness of Police Scotland performance in handling relevant complaints, the Committee takes evidence from:

• Police Scotland, through regular and ad hoc assurance reports.
• PIRC, on complaint handling reviews and thematic audits.
• Authority officials, through member briefing and reporting on regular dip-sampling.

The Committee seeks assurance, through audit and random case sampling, that complaints are being appropriately categorised and improvement actions are being progressed. For example, a progress report on discharging recommendations from the recent joint audit conducted by the Authority and PIRC outlines additional training provided by PIRC to Professional Standards officers to ensure cases are appropriately recorded as ‘relevant complaints’ and with auditable records maintained outlining the rationale where cases are not recorded as such. Work is also being undertaken to review the current allegation categories to further support consistent recording.

The Committee is aware there will be individuals who are dissatisfied with Police Scotland’s handling of their complaint and choose not to request a complaint handling review by PIRC. The Committee will receive structured feedback in the summer from Police Scotland on individuals who raise complaints.

I have summarised below some examples of the Committees’ scrutiny of trend information in relation to complaints:

• The circumstances giving rise to increasing complaint levels and any correlation with Police Scotland resourcing levels.
• Geographical variances in complaint levels, seeking to understand underlying influencing factors, cross-division learning and assurance around preventative action taken.
• Analysis of allegations related to quality of service, irregularity in procedure and discriminatory behaviour, and assurance around remedial action.
• The Committee has also taken a particular interest in conduct matters where allegations have a sexual element. These cover complaints made by members of the public or internal complaints by officers and staff.
• Frontline resolution trends, reviewing appropriate categorisation, officer and staff training and future audit plans.

Following the above work, the committee will review resourcing levels of Police Scotland’s Professional Standards Department, to inform the Authority’s scrutiny of the Revised Model of Policing.