Open HMICS Recommendations

Recommendation 5 - Police Scotland should review the current arrangements for allocation of specialist support in relation to online child sexual abuse to ensure the allocation is fair, equitable and meets the needs across the country.

This recommendation focused on Police Scotland’s Digital Forensics function. In response, this department received an uplift of 29 staff with recruitment completed through 2022. Updated evidence of progress was submitted to HMICS during recruitment. HMICS indicated it wished to assess the impact of increased staffing on capacity of the vital on-site Digital Forensic triage function which is critical in supporting OCSAE investigations. Further evidence will be submitted to HMICS.

Recommendation 6 - Police Scotland should review the resources and structure of the Internet Investigation Unit and Communications Investigation Unit to ensure that the force is able to meet current and future demand in relation to initial risk assessment, triage and intelligence development.

 The actions in the original recommendation (Internet Investigations Unit (IIU) and Telecommunications Investigation Unit (TIU) review) have taken place and other work has developed from dialogue with HMICS during the Progress Review. This focused on a Child at Risk Investigations end-to-end process review and a NOCAP workflow management system within the IIU. The Child at Risk review has been completed which concluded that processes are working well, despite an increase in volume, with no recommendations made for change. Challenges remain in respect of a workflow management system with pilots being discussed with National Crime Agency (NCA) through the use of ‘Hubstream’, and alternative solutions being considered by the Chief Data Officer. IIU management is hopeful solutions will be implemented in 2023. As such this recommendation remains ongoing. 

Recommendation 8 - Police Scotland should work with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) to establish a pragmatic and realistic approach to digital forensic examination requests.

 A pilot between police Digital Forensics and COPFS and its Standard Forensic Instructions (SFI) has been undertaken in the east of the country. This evidenced challenges with Police Scotland processes, but also the benefits of having a single COPFS point of contact. Nimbus case management system has now been introduced which has had a positive impact on police Examination Request Forms (ERFs). Digital Forensics has designed and implemented an automated management system for Cyber Kiosk requests which has reduced backlog.

The original recommendation sought evidence of a “realistic and pragmatic approach to digital forensic examination requests” with COPFS.   HMICS’ assessment from the Progress Review reiterated the need for an ‘urgent review’ of Digital Forensics. This has been effected and evidence of the outcomes of staffing uplift is detailed above under Recommendation 5. The proof of concept undertake in the East was successful and demonstrated the value of having a single point of contact model in place with COPFS.

COPFS has committed to rolling this out across the rest of the country. However, this has not yet taken place and Police Scotland is reliant upon COPFS to identify and train staff. COVID impacted training delivery but dialogue with COPFS remains open and work continues to fulfil this ambition.

Separately Police Scotland and COPFS have had discussions on evidential thresholds and whether limiting examinations in terms of numbers of devices being examined or applying numerical thresholds to images recovered is desirable. However, both share concerns that the risks of missing ‘1st generation’ imagery remain unmitigated and, consequently, such an approach cannot be supported at this stage.

A review has been undertaken around the more effective use of Cyber Kiosks, exploiting their capability further to improve processes. There is also a Summary case pilot scheme where more information is introduced from Cyber Kiosk examinations into summary cases

The direction of travel is clear and Police Scotland has undertaken significant activity to achieve a “realistic and pragmatic approach” with ongoing dialogue around progress. HMICS has indicated a preference for this recommendation to remain open until further roll out of the COPFS SPOC model. A further evidence submission to HMICS will be prepared.

Recommendation 11 - Police Scotland must ensure that sufficient welfare provision is available and provided to staff working within this area of policing.

A final draft welfare strategy has been developed and is subject to internal review, prior to engagement with staff associations and ultimately submission to the TOCSA Strategic Group for ratification. The strategy encompasses each business area involved in the end-to-end process of OCSAE Investigations. Once the strategy has navigated these internal governance processes, it will thereafter be submitted to HMICS.