Committee Business

Current Committee members:

• Katharina Kasper- Chair (from Sep 2022)
• Dr Catriona Stewart OBE (from Jun 2022)
• Grant Macrae
• Fiona McQueen CBE
• Paul Edie

Former Committee member:

• Alasdair Hay- Chair (to Sep 2022)

The Committee met on eight occasions during the 2022-2023 financial year. During this period the Committee considered a number of standing, cyclical and ad hoc items as outlined below, in respect of complaints.

Further information on Committee membership, as well as copies of reports, minutes and Livestream recordings of public sessions of the Committee are available from the SPA website.

Complaints Handling Performance Reports

As a standing agenda item, the Committee receive quarterly reports on complaints handling performance in respect of both the SPA and Police Scotland. The Committee also receives quarterly reports from the PIRC including updates on Complaint Handling Review (CHR) Applications; CHR Reports; and Outcomes including CHR Disposals and Recommendations.

A summary of annual complaints handling performance data, and resulting analysis and insights, is provided in section four below.

The Angiolini Review made a recommendation that the SPA Complaints and Conduct Committee should scrutinise Police Scotland performance in dealing with complaints and hold the service to account where targets are not being achieved.

It also recommended that the Committee should hold Police Scotland to account for delays in investigations into complaints and misconduct.

Prior to and during 2022-23, Members have sought enhanced assurance reporting around matters including:

• additional information on complaints categories and outcomes to enable a deeper insight (including diversity data; analysis by type of policing duties and geography; demographic profile of subject officers; categories of complaints upheld)
• enhanced reporting in respect of complaint handling timescales
• ongoing trend analysis
• analysis of key themes, organisational learning and audited impact of improvement activity

Engagement remains ongoing with Police Scotland with a view to ensuring that information provided to the Committee is of a sufficient level of detail, and has been subject to an appropriate level of analysis, to enable the Authority to more fully perform its oversight role and enabling greater public transparency in relation to this important area.

Whilst some significant changes and improvements have already been made, it is appreciated that more fundamental change is dependent to an extent on IT system development.