Responsibilities

Responsibility for appointing senior officers sits with the Scottish Police Authority. Approval must be sought from the full Authority before any role can be offered to a candidate.

In the case of an appointment to the office of the Chief Constable, the Authority is required to recommend and seek the approval of Scottish Ministers before this role can be offered to a candidate.

The People Committee is responsible for determining and approving the optimum process and implementation arrangements for appointments to the ranks of Chief Constable, DCC and ACC.

It is recommended that responsibility for discharging the approved process for any senior officer recruitment process is delegated to the Chair of the Authority who is also the Chair of the Appointment Panel.

Responsibility for supporting the Chair throughout any appointment process rests with the Chief Executive.

The day to day running of a senior officer appointment process is the responsibility of the Authority’s Workforce Governance Team with support and input from Police Scotland’s People and Development team (for example expert advice, visit facilitation, professional standard checks, vetting, on boarding). If it is identified that a secondment of dedicated People and Development support from Police Scotland would assist (when multiple roles require to be recruited in the same timeframe) this may be sought.

During the recruitment of the Chief Constable in the summer of 2023 professional support for the process from the College of Policing was provided. It is not anticipated that this level of professional input will be required in the coming 12 months.