Complaint Categories

Overall, 47.1% (3,119) of all complaints received during 2022-23 were concluded via Frontline Resolution (FLR) (compared to 49.2% in 2021-22).

As outlined in the PIRC Statutory Guidance on handling of complaints about the police in Scotland (October 2022), the ability to resolve complaints promptly and simply is a key element of an efficient and effective police complaints system. FLR allows complaints to be resolved at an early stage by way of explanation, assurance or apology, usually over the phone or in person, and is intended to be a pragmatic and proportionate approach that benefits all parties involved in a complaint.

The Committee have previously heard that PIRC have not undertaken any significant analysis to date in respect of complaints addressed by Police Scotland through the informal FLR process, although noted that this should only be used in relation to low-level complaints. They have confirmed, however, an intention to undertake an audit of the FLR process in due course.

A further 1,629 complaints were categorised as Non-Criminal (not FLR), a 15.2% increase on 2021-22 (which was, in turn, a 31.4% decrease against 2020-21). Taken together, the vast majority of received complaints were either FLR at some stage, or resulted in Non-Criminal enquiry. This contrasts with the 448 complaints categorised as Criminal. Whilst representing a relatively low proportion compared to those which are Non-Criminal in nature, Criminal complaints nevertheless saw a 32.9% increase on the 2021-22[1] total of 337 cases. The remainder of complaints received were either Abandoned (968), Withdrawn (336), Not Relevant Complaint (0) or were Ongoing with the PSD National Complaints Assessment & Resolution Unit (121).

Allegations

During the course of 2022-23, a total of 10,686 allegations were received, a reduction of 13.9% compared to the previous year. Reductions in the number of allegations were identified across all three Command Areas, as summarised in Table 4 below, although to a lesser extent in the North (which also saw a small increase against the five-year average).

Table 4:

Members are advised that fluctuations in levels geographically are reflective of variations in the number of officers working within the 3 command areas, and have requested development of future reports to enable understanding of any disproportionality when controlling for workforce size.

Allegation Categories

There are three broad categories of police complaints:

• on-duty complaints
• off-duty complaints
• quality of service complaints

Table 5 provides a breakdown of allegations by category for each of the past six years. As with previous years, the majority of allegations received are in relation to the on-duty category, which accounted for 62% of allegations received by Police Scotland in 2022-23, although numbers in this category are the lowest seen over the reporting period.

Quality of Service accounts for 38% of allegations. Whilst a slight decrease against 2021-22, the previous year presented the peak of an earlier year-on-year increase over the reporting period. Off-duty allegations continue to be very small in number, 2022-23 continuing a year-on-year reduction in those received. In respect of those on or off duty allegations which allege criminality, 2022-23 saw continuation of largely increasing trend over the reporting period, albeit numbers account for just under 6% of all allegations received.

Table 5:

Allegations are further broken down to a number of sub-categories, with Table 6 showing the ten sub-categories which generally receive the highest volume of allegations.

Over the past six years, the sub-categories with the highest number of allegations continue to be Irregularity in Procedure, the three Quality of Service (QoS) sub-categories of Service Outcome, Service Delivery and Policy/Procedure, and Incivility.

Taken together, these sub-categories accounted for 83% of all allegations received during 2022-23. This proportion has remained broadly steady over the reporting period. However, in 2022-23, as part of an overall reduction in allegations received, allegations across each of these sub-categories saw a reduction compared to 2021-22, with the exception of Policy/Procedure.

Table 6:

Police Scotland have highlighted the 20.1% increase in Policy/Procedure allegations compared to 2021-22, which they advise is primarily driven by Divisions in the West (with each registering an increase) in addition to the North East Division.

A 12.5% increase in Assault allegations was also identified continuing an earlier increasing trend over the reporting period, which Police Scotland advise is primarily driven by Lanarkshire (+30 allegations), alongside lower volume increases within Fife (+22 allegations), North East (+19 allegations) and Ayrshire (+18 allegations). Following Police Scotland’s Quarter One report to Committee in August 2022, highlighting early indication of increases, Members sought to understand how action being taken forward to address increased allegations of Assault and Excessive Force within Fife were being rolled out more widely across the organisation and how impact would be monitored.

As of October 2021, all on-duty Assault allegations (plus any associated criminal allegations) received by Police Scotland must be referred to the PIRC for assessment and potential investigation, following recommendation made within the Angiolini Review in relation to alleged breaches of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This ensures that these allegations are subject to independent scrutiny and investigation as required. Police Scotland note that 375 such referrals were made in 2022-23, with PIRC determining that 58.9% did not require further investigation. Members have sought to understand how long this process takes, cognisant of the impact on both the complainer and the subject officer whilst matters remain ongoing. It was confirmed that PIRC make a decision on whether or not a matter will be subject to investigation fairly quickly, with Police Scotland having 14 days thereafter to provide information required to inform investigations. However, it has been acknowledged that the overall process can take time, the PIRC advising that it is currently undertaking a review which it hopes will streamline the process going forward.

Police Scotland have committed to undertaking further analysis to identify factors which have influenced these increases.

Members have previously requested provision of further data analysis to allow the Committee to more fully understand changes in allegation levels, noting the need to gain a sense of the magnitude and complexities of complaints being received and to seek assurance around resulting organisational learning.

[1] Due to change in May 2021 in the way in which criminal complaints are recorded, it is not possible to provide comparison to prior years

[2] The data reported for Incivility differs from that reported to Committee as it is limited here to the ‘On Duty’ category.

Key themes of Complaints

Following consideration of annual allegation sub-category trends at its meeting in May 2022, the Committee sought to understand changes in allegation levels in respect of quality of service more generally, Police Scotland advising that this was attributable to the ability of local policing to respond to demand in light of availability of resources. The Committee also sought to understand changes in allegation levels in relation to discriminatory behaviour, Police Scotland noting challenges in drawing direct comparison to the previous year in this regard given COVID lockdown rules in place at the time.

In response to the above, the Committee requested additional information to enable a deeper dive into allegations of Discriminatory Behaviour and Quality of Service (comprising Service Outcome, Service Delivery and Policy/Procedure sub-categories), covering a period of five years.

Discriminatory Behaviour

The report confirmed a sustained increase over the period, asserting that it may be reflective of an increased public confidence in this regard. Whilst breakdown was provided by Division, no individual area was identified in particular as influencing this increase.

Trend data was provided in respect of allegations by protected characteristic, showing that recent increases were related to gender, and that increases against the five-year average were driven by both gender and race (the latter accounting for the highest number of allegations in 2021/22).

In relation to race-related allegations in 2021/22, the majority were from individuals of a BAME background and involved complaints by individuals subject to police action (mainly in relation to road traffic matters). A sizeable minority involved complaints by individuals reporting an incident to the police.

In respect of allegations relating to gender in 2021/22, 55.2% were made by male complainers (half of which perceived discrimination by police following involvement in domestic incidents). 37.9% were from female complainers, where the majority related to a perceived lack of police action, and where in all instances the attitude of subject officers was referenced when communicating with them and their actions perceived to have been discriminatory on the basis of gender. A further 6.9% of allegations related to transgender complainers. The Committee asked whether any evaluation had been undertaken around the imbalance of reporting in relation to gender, particularly in light of recent awareness campaigns, to which Police Scotland confirmed that it would consider this further.

The report noted that 2.7% of discriminatory behaviour allegations were upheld in 2021/22, an increase from 2% in 2020/21, but a decrease against the five-year average of 5.8%. It noted that upheld complaints related to:

• failure of a service advisor to provide reasonable assistance or adjustments for a caller who declared that they were autistic
• a subject officer who referred to a complainer who self-identified as a female as ‘Sir’ when leaving a voicemail message
• a complainer who was asked to leave a public building when not wearing a face mask during the COVID-19 pandemic, but who cited autism as a reasonable exemption in line with the then-current guidance

The report emphasised that individual and organisational learning is cascaded in relation to upheld allegations, but also where investigations into matters subsequently not upheld nevertheless identifies opportunities to inform practice in interacting with the public.

Finally, analysis was undertaken in relation to subject officers linked to such allegations during 2021/22, which identified that there was no concentration of officers at specific stations or shifts implicated in the increase in allegations seen. Following Committee discussion around higher concentration of allegations in respect of subject officers within the 2-5 year service bracket, it was confirmed that this was due to officers with this level of service more likely to be in operational roles.

Quality of Service

The report provided comparison of quality of service allegations sub-type, between 2021/22 and the five-year average.

It noted that, due to the high number of allegations within this category, key themes were identified via dip sampling of those sub-types with the highest volumes:

• Policing procedure
  • Productions – dissatisfaction over the grounds for seizure, retention by Police Scotland, failure to return these in a timely manner, not issuing receipts, plus the destruction or disrepair of property seized
  • Police attendance at properties – dissatisfaction over attendance in relation to reported incidents, forced entry, searches conducted without lawful authority, inaccurate information and attendance at unsociable hours

• Type of Response:
  • Lack of updates – dissatisfaction expressed regarding inadequate communication and/or lack of contact from police. These vary from following incidents reported, death messages, active investigations and outcomes of enquiries
  • Lack of Police action – dissatisfaction with regards to matters reported to Police which have resulted in no action taken. Perceived insufficient enquiry and the manner of how those reports were progressed were prevalent factors here. Neighbour related issues were also a common theme amongst those allegations
  • Manner of attending officers – lack of empathy and dismissive as regards complainers concerns
  • Non-attendance – failure of police officers to attend incidents reported. Road traffic matters, vandalism, noise complaints, threatening and abusive behaviour featured amongst the types of incidents subject to compliant

• Lack of Satisfaction with Action Taken:
  • Lack of Police action – dissatisfaction from members of the public reporting offences and perceiving a lack of enforcement as a result. Primarily these revolve around officers not establishing criminality and suspects not being arrested/charged. Neighbour related concerns were identified to be a common feature amongst those

The Committee has sought clarity on whether there was any learning from this analysis and opportunity to aggregate the same, particularly in relation to lack of updates. Police Scotland advised that lack of update has been an ongoing concern raised via public engagement surveys.

Following the above report, Members discussed the importance of ongoing engagement on the areas presented for the purposes of learning and improvement. Noting the importance for follow-up, the Committee asked that Police Scotland provide update on management actions being taken in response to the identified themes.

Following on from the above, and considering trend data from 2022-23, Members have continued to seek to understand the circumstances surrounding Service Delivery allegations more broadly (and more specifically those relating to Time of Response), and any correlation with resourcing levels.

Following earlier discussion in May 2022, Members have continued to enquire around the drivers for allegations in relation to Irregularity in Procedure allegations. More recently Police Scotland have committed to reporting back on associated elements of procedure which are generating the largest number of allegations in this regard, and what they are doing in response.

Determinations

During 2022-23, a total of 11,395 allegations were closed. 4,659 of those allegations were attached to completed criminal and non-criminal complaint investigations and subject to formal determination (i.e. not subject to frontline resolution), with 16% being upheld.

Table 7 below provides trend information over the past three years in this regard, highlighting small year on year increases in the number of upheld allegations, as the number requiring formal determination has seen a corresponding decrease.  

Table 7:

Following request from the Committee, Police Scotland have additionally included information on the largest volume categories and sub-types surrounding allegations upheld during 2022-23, as follows:

On Duty Allegations

• Irregularity in Procedure (284), of which the highest volume sub-category was:
  • Insufficient Enquiry Carried Out (89)

Quality of Service Allegations

• Service Delivery (171), of which the highest volume sub-category was:
  • Time of Response (117)

• Service Outcome (159), of which the highest volume sub-category was:
  • Lack of Satisfaction with Action Taken (99)

It should be noted that, if complainers are dissatisfied with the handling of their complaint, they can request a review via the PIRC. Members have previously heard that the introduction in 2021 of a centralised national complaint handling model offers a further degree of independence in handling, alongside the independent role of PIRC/COPFS regarding criminal complaints.

Closure Timescales

In line with PIRC Statutory Guidance, policing bodies should aim to respond to complaints requiring investigation within 56 days of receipt (with the aim of FLR being to provide a quick, informed response within a much shorter timescale).

In 2022-23, Police Scotland changed its approach to reporting on timescales, providing data on non-criminal cases inclusive (rather than exclusive) of those closed via frontline resolution. Table 8 below provides trend information over the past three years in this regard, detailing average closure timescales, as well as the proportion closed within 56 days. It highlights that average closure timescales have seen a year on year increase over the period. Whilst there was slight improvement in the proportion of cases closed within 56 days compared to 2021-22, it is still 5% lower than in 2020-21. Information on the proportion of complaints closed via frontline resolution is provided earlier in the report.

Table 8:

Police Scotland have noted challenges around imbalance of demand against resource, and the impact on complaint handling timescales, but advise that they are looking to make improvements to increase the efficiency of the process. When asked about key opportunities for improvement, the PIRC have noted the need for improvements in relation to the timely communications with complainers. Linked to the above, Members have noted that, whilst all complaints are important, they are keen to further understand how complaints are triaged within Police Scotland, to ensure prioritisation of those of a more serious nature.