Report Summary
This report provides members of the Complaints & Conduct Committee with an overview of the Revised SPA Complaint Handling Procedures.
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Meeting
The publication discussed was referenced in the meeting below
Complaints & Conduct Committee - 1 March 2023
Date : 01 March 2023
Location : online
Review Process
The SPA must have regard to the ‘PIRC Statutory Guidance on the handling of complaints about the police in Scotland’ when dealing with relevant complaints or developing its own internal complaints procedures. In publishing revised statutory guidance in June and October 2022, the PIRC stated that many of the revisions were introduced following its engagement with the Equality and Human Rights Commission and closely aligned to the recommendations set out by Dame Elish Angiolini in her report ‘Independent Review of Complaints Handling, Investigations and Misconduct Issues in Relation to Policing’ published in November 2020.
Given the revised statutory guidance, the SPA undertook a review of its own procedures to ensure compliance with the revised guidance.
The revised procedures introduce a change to the decision making process for complaints about SPA staff below Director-level. The change reflects previous Committee discussion on the SPA Corporate Governance Framework review which noted that any key change would first require an amendment to the relevant procedure or policy. It is recognised that this change will require an amendment to the Committee Terms of Reference.
At its meeting of 18 August 2022, the Committee approved draft updates to the procedures for formal consultation.
