The Pearson Review of

Policing in Scotland
November 2015

Background to the Review

Scottish Labour backed a single police force because we believed that
communities across Scotland could be better served and that all people
should have access to specialised officers and support. However, we did
not believe that should be at the expense of local policing. We raised
many concerns about the way the Scottish Government were changing
structures and failing to ensure effective relationships between Police
Scotland and the body set up to scrutinise it, the Scottish Police
Authority (SPA).
As a result, there was already a need to examine the effectiveness of
the structures and relationships of the single force. However, there have
been a series of clear failures with the structure, hierarchy and Executive
of Police Scotland which demanded a swift look at the issues involved.
That is why the Scottish Labour Party instigated this Review, and tasked
Scottish Labours Justice Spokesperson, Graeme Pearson MSP, to lead
it.
Graeme joined City of Glasgow Police at the age of 19, and was in the
Police Service for 38 years. He rose to the rank of Deputy Chief
Constable of Strathclyde Police and then on to become Director General
of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA).
After leaving SCDEA, he became an Honorary Professor and Head of
the University of Glasgows Institute for the Study of Serious Organised
Crime.

Executive Summary
Announced on 31st August, the aim of the review was to assess the effectiveness of
the single police force and propose reforms to restore local accountability and
reverse the impact of damaging cuts to staff and services.
The review looked at:

Local accountability
Practical policing
The relationship between Police Scotland, the Scottish Police Authority (SPA)
and Scottish Government ministers
Staffing and targets

As part of the review I wanted to speak to the public, rank and file officers, civilian
staff, community groups, victim support staff and others. I am grateful to report that
without exception contributions were made in a constructive and positive manner
Scottish Labour proposed a community focussed single service police and
firefighting capability in 2011, but the SNP government subsequently engineered
something very wrong in terms of its implementation. In spite of recommendations to
the contrary and significant motions from Scottish Labour to provide a balanced
approach to reforms the Scottish Government used their majority to deliver a
centralised agenda. The quango appointments to the Scottish Police Authority
Board apparently acquiesced to the demands from The Scottish Government and its
single minded chief constable to deliver budget cuts, redundancies and a policy of
inappropriate target setting demanded by the Cabinet Secretary.
That is why policing in Scotland needs a shake-up and this review is not an exercise
in kicking the issue into the long grass. We need to get back to the kind of
community policing that made Scotland the envy of the world at one time.
Police Officers and staff need more management support, and the structures of
governance and accountability need to be improved. The reports recommendations
are as follows:

Improve Parliamentary oversight - The Scottish Parliament should

convene a committee of the Parliament to oversee the national emergency
services of police, fire and rescue, ambulance and coast guard in the context
of the national infrastructure arrangements and preparedness for
emergencies.

Ensure resources meet local needs - A resource audit must now be

conducted across the country to identify accurately the staff and resource
allocation for each 'community', whether that be at local authority or police
divisional levels, as decided by local committees.

Ensure a properly balanced force - The Chief Constable with the

agreement of the SPA should determine the balance of the force required; to
ensure the most effective police force possible.

Build a link between local committees and the SPA - Convenors of

local committees should be given a right of audience at the Scottish Police
Authority board meetings regarding issues that are beyond resolution at the
local level.

Enable better local oversight - All members of local committees should

be trained so that they can properly hold Police Scotland to account. There
should be a formal recognition that the primary purpose of local committees is
to hold divisional commanders to account on the issues that are important to
those committees.

Share best practice and concerns - There should be a recognised voice

for deputy and assistant chief constables in the gathering of information in
terms of policy. With the end of Association of Chief Police Officers in
Scotland (ACPOS), no recognised forum is currently available to capture
those views.

A more robust SPA - The SPA must adapt its role in order to scrutinise
genuine governance in order to ensure high levels of public accountability for
police activities and budgets. The Chair of the SPA should therefore be made
confirmable by a vote of the whole parliament.

Urgently review IT infrastructure - There is an urgent need for an active

review of IT strategy and IT deliverables. Given that accurate information and
intelligence is vital to policing the absence of a dependable end-to-end IT
provision is a risk too far in this modern age. We can buy products across the
world from Amazon and eBay more easily than police can access their own
databases across Scotland.

Clear complaint handling - The Police Investigation and Review

Commissioner (PIRC) should be given the sole responsibility for the conduct
of investigations alleging misconduct and criminality affecting the service. All
cases should be referred to PIRC who can refer back to Police Scotland what
they assess as low level complaints.

Learn from the past: a full business case is crucial - There should be
an acknowledgement from the Scottish Government and the SPA that the
absence of a full business case before the commencement of Police Scotland
has created significant problems when taking forward a reform of this
magnitude.

I am grateful to all those who contributed to this review, in particular those who
travelled some distance to the meetings that I conducted across the country. I would
also like to thank those who telephoned, emailed, wrote to me and told me in person
their views and recommendations. This report captures as fairly as I could the
evidenced views expressed during this process.
Given the urgency and scale of this issue, I am also grateful to John McKenzie,
Gemma Cheek, Peter Speirs and Paul McKay who have worked diligently to produce
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this review quickly. Much of the work to produce this review has relied on their good
will.
I also would like to make special mention of the support from Unison who made our
schedule of public meetings possible.

Graeme Pearson MSP

Scottish Labours Justice Spokesperson

The Review Process

Engagement with the public

Between Thursday 10th September and Thursday 1 st October, I held seven public
meetings in locations around the country. Our schedule took in Dundee; Inverness;
Dumfries; Glasgow; Aberdeen; Kilmarnock and Edinburgh.
For those unable to attend public meetings we had a dedicated email address and
webpage to take written submissions to the review; and we held a Facebook Q&A.
Correspondence was also received within my parliamentary office - by email,
telephone and post.
I was also able to meet, and to speak with, a number of individuals who were
uncomfortable about attending the public meetings.

Meetings with Organisations

Calum Steele, General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation

George McIrvine, Secretary of UNISON Police Staff Scotland branch
Chief Superintendent Niven Rennie, President of the Association of Scottish
Police Superintendents
John Wood, Policy Manager, COSLA
Kate Frame, PIRC
Superintendent Gavin Phillip, Local Government and Parliamentary Liaison
Officer for Police Scotland.

The Pearson Review of Policing in Scotland

We need the Police, like we need water contributor to the Review

The people of Scotland need and deserve a police force that does its job thoroughly
and efficiently. It has been increasingly clear in recent years that Police Scotland is
not working properly. Going around the country, listening to what ordinary officers,
staff, members of the public and local politicians have had to say has painted a
worryingly consistent picture of a centralised, politicised and autocratic police force
with little to no meaningful local accountability. All this has emerged as a
consequence of the Scottish Governments handling of the formation of Police
Scotland. This Review is a distillation of these concerns, and a contribution to the
process of shaping our police service and holding it to account that is essential in
any democracy.
The Review is in four parts. Firstly, I will discuss issues regarding local accountability
of the national force. Structural problems arising from the creation of the single force
lie at the heart of many of Police Scotlands problems, both in execution and
perception. I will then move on to discuss a series of issues that have arisen in my
discussions with ordinary staff members during the Review process. The third
section will explore the problems of top-level accountability within Police Scotlands
structure. Finally, I will discuss issues of staffing and a narrow target-driven agenda
within Police Scotland.
Throughout this Review process, my staff and I have been reminded of the skill,
professionalism and dedication of Scotlands police officers. It is incumbent upon
those of us trusted with creating the structures in which they operate to ensure that
they are supported and empowered. I have also been reminded of the importance of
entering into an open and sincere dialogue with local people. It is only with the
consent of the community that the police can operate. This consent must be
constantly renewed and secured. Their trust can be established only with strong
local accountability, motivated local officers and properly created structures.

Local accountability
Review submissions
The direct link with the community has been lost and needs to be reinstated"
Local accountability has been lost. Old Police Boards, chaired by senior
elected members kept local issues to the fore, and the local forces were held
much more accountable to local areas than they are now.
Helping those that need help is any police services essence. Arresting criminals and
reporting evidence to the Procurator Fiscal is Police Scotlands duty. They are the
mark of successful policing and, local accountability lies at the heart of measuring
that success.
To that end, everything Police Scotland and its national partners do should seek to
deliver on those objectives effectively. However, they must take account of the role
councillors and others at the local level should play. It is disappointing that COSLAs
voice on policing has been largely overlooked by the Scottish Government.
Councillors on the local boards should already have a right of audience to the SPA
on matters unresolved at their local committees in discussion with their commanders.
These local committees could co-opt onto their committee local people who are
deemed skilled in the exercise of scrutiny for example, people from business,
industry, crime prevention and victims' organisations. Perhaps even solicitors or
advocates, not primarily involved in criminal justice, could provide more forensic
oversight.
Concerns have been raised by COSLA and others regarding the closures of control
rooms and police offices. These concerns could have been resolved had a better
process of consultation been in place. Many of the problems that have arisen from
control rooms in recent times could have been avoided had police, fire and
ambulance services alongside the coastguard service been relocated into local hubs
to improve cooperation and save significant finance in terms of infrastructure
support.
It is often said by Police Scotland that there are 353 ward plans, agreed after local
consultation. Throughout the Review, we have met with many local people who are
unaware of any such consultation, including many councillors. Only in parts of
Highland Region did we hear of physical consultation taking place to hear what
communities thought. It is clear that this is largely a meaningless process which
provides little, if any, additional localisation.
The big unresolved matters from a local authority perspective include CCTV funding
and control and the need for ongoing funding commitments from local authorities.
For example, the City of Edinburgh Council is currently considering the withdrawal of
more than 2 million in contributions to Police Scotland designed to enhance ward
level policing across the city. Should other cash strapped local authorities go down
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the same route, local policing will be sorely affected under the funding regime
currently in place.
One contributor to this Review stated that "the Scottish population has lost trust in
the police". I do not believe that this is entirely true; most ordinary people trust their
local officers to work diligently in the interests of the local area. However, the results
of the recent staff survey, taken together with the contributions made to this Review
point to the existence of two Police Scotlands. One on the shop floor, as the staff
survey revealed, where officers and civilian staff work as a team, trust each other
and feel good about the work they do. The other Police Scotland fails to win the
support of the public, politicians and the media due to its institutional failure to keep
its promises and candidly tell the truth. The job now for the Scottish Government is
to bring these two services together to ensure that the co-operation, hard work and
earnestness shown at local level is replicated at the highest echelons of the national
service. It is no doubt a big task but one that officers, support staff and the public can
rise to.
Many contributors made reference to the Strathclyde Way, reflecting the perception
that Police Scotland sought to deliver a one-size-fits-all approach to policing across
the country. This short-hand for centralisation created a sense of alienation in the
minds of officers and staff at every level and made it more difficult for officers to use
their initiative when dealing with problems.
To ensure that local accountability is at the heart of Police Scotlands service,
divisional commanders and local police leadership need to be given autonomy to
allow them to answer the questions raised by their communities, rather than to be
message carriers for the centre. At the same time, local councillors and those who
would serve on local committees should be offered training to ensure that they are
able to ask challenging and probing questions of police rather than force fed with
statistics and targets. In that new light, committees would be best placed for
applauding good work, challenging shortcomings and contributing to policing in the
future. Policing by consent will become a banner line of some meaning. Together
with that right of audience at the SPA board when necessary, levels of responsibility
in all matters policing will be clarified and have meaning with impact.
Running through many of the points raised was the perception that the service paid
heed solely to the views of its Chief Constable who operated alongside an executive
group that offered little in the way of constructive alternative views at the time of
decision. In the minds of staff, this was a major factor in the eruption of the
controversies around stop and search, firearms policies, the closure of control rooms
and police offices. The review offers no view on the accuracy of such opinions, but
there is no doubt such opinions were strongly and widely held. What is apparent is
the absence of any external challenge to developments across the policing
landscape unless and until events created a public clamour for action via the media
or Scottish Parliamentarians.

Practical Policing
Review submissions
The existing ICT is slow and unreliable making access to systems time
consuming and problematic. This was not taken into account when the new
structure was applied.
Three officers from the west of the region spent 10 hours travelling with 3
custodies Again, how can this be cost effective?

A variety of issues were raised concerning Police Scotlands approach to practical

policing. Many contributors pointed to inefficient and bureaucratic processes, whilst
others pointed to the botched introduction of IT systems as symptomatic of wider
problems in the service. There was also widespread concern regarding the proposed
changes to the status of the British Transport Police (BTP).
Custody Management
Custody Management across the Service is another issue raising concerns with
operational officers. It was reported that officers often have difficulties tracing a cell
within which to lodge a prisoner due to too few cells being made available for
custodies across Scotland.
We have many examples of officers engaged for hours moving prisoners from one
custody centre to another as occupancy rates are exhausted. In one case, three
officers spent ten hours taking the same prisoners from one location to another
before lodging could be achieved. Consequently, a private company had to uplift
those same prisoners back to court on the first lawful day in the Jurisdiction where
the arrest had taken place, creating further cost and inefficiency in the system. The
health and safety implications of this to officers are clear, as is the potential for
prisoner violence or even escape. With prisoners often under the influence of alcohol
or drugs, the potential for harm to them is also increased in such circumstances. The
impact too on prisoners families who would wish to visit the office holding their loved
one is made the more difficult by these "tours".
Several officers reported that fewer than 50% of those arrested and detained in
custody were subject to proper fingerprint and photographic procedures. It meant
that people could pass through custody without an outstanding warrant being
identified and, in addition, the same person could repeatedly use false particulars
without detection. Though extremely serious in itself, the problem becomes even
more pressing given the nature of travelling criminals not solely from the UK but now
from across the world. In terms of public and officer safety such failures are deeply
troubling.

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IT Systems
The capacity for existing and proposed information technology services to support
and enable a fast and effective policing response is severely questioned by all those
who contributed to the Review and made comment on the issue. Officers and staff
complained bitterly of growing paperwork necessary to deliver on their work, and of
IT Systems making this process even more cumbersome. We often hear that Police
Scotland is in its infancy. However, many of the people charged with delivering in
this area of policing were in post for many years before the single service and were
supposed to be developing the future for policing across Scotland even then. So the
history is not good.
The Common Performance Management Platform (CPMP) cost 8.7m, was
inoperable at any stage and abandoned with HMICS noting: Project risks and issues
were not identified and managed well throughout the project lifespan.1 The I6
programme, ongoing for nearly a decade in one form or another and forecast to
spend 40m, is still not near to delivery despite assurances in Parliament from Police
Scotland and the SPA that the CPMP debacle would not be repeated. At the same
time rationalised control rooms across the country appear ill-served with the
technical support to enable the seamless receipt of calls, information and intelligence
to be managed without human interventions. The system appears to require written
notes to ensure the management of thousands of daily calls, when the logging of
calls from the public should by now be the easiest element of the process given the
software solutions available. Simply, a police service without adequate and
functioning IT services as described is not fit for the 21st century.
British Transport Police
The future for the British Transport Police (BTP) was raised at one meeting where
concerns regarding safety on the railway lines, training, watering down of standards,
interconnection across the network as well as pension rights, employment issues
and pay and conditions were all mentioned. From the Reviews viewpoint insufficient
evidence has been forthcoming in support of submerging the BTP into Police
Scotland to make a judgement on its efficacy. A full business case must be produced
ahead of time to enable proper assessment and a judgement to be agreed. Until
then, the sceptics will continue to suggest the eradication of "British" from the
policing title is the main objective in this Scottish Government exercise. The absence
of a full business case stage in the development of the national police service has
proved critical in enabling failures to occur during this important reform phase.
Professional Standards
Complaints handling, professional standards and anti-corruption efforts are a source
of concern in the minds of a number of officers and many members of the public.
The use of the courts to resolve all issues of Data Protection infringements raised
serious questions of proportionality. The entire approach to professional standards
within Police Scotland must be reviewed as a matter of urgency by senior members
1

HMICS Review of the Common Performance Management Platform Project, April 2013 http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0042/00425751.pdf

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within Police Scotland and the Lord Advocate with a view to transferring
responsibility for these duties to the PIRC. It not only provides an enhanced level of
independence in the future in respect of the management of these cases but such a
change will also answer human rights concerns of those pursuing European
Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) requirements by ensuring a demonstrable
independence in the handling of complaints from the beginning. Timescales
attached to the handling of such cases should also be addressed. The current
examples of officers being suspended for years or subject of 'gardening leave'
whatever that means in terms of police discipline is unacceptable. Staged and
agreed updates should be made public to ensure progress is maintained to resolve
cases.
Police Establishments
The question of political interference in policing decisions around police
establishments was asked and many viewed political involvement in such decisions
as inappropriate. In discussion, I have been clear that my view from the beginning
was that such commitments had a negative side which we needed to identify. We
now realise the additional 1000 police officers were delivered on the backs of nearly
2500 support staff redundancies. It is also clear that the 1,000 officers promised by
the Scottish Government in 2007 did not translate to 1,000 additional people on the
beat. But rather officers have been redeployed to serve a series of office jobs,
centralised units and national task forces. The needs of local policing have been all
but ignored in the rush to centralise the service and the drive to deliver 1.4 billion in
savings too quickly.
Although public appetite for ever increasing numbers of police officers is
understandable, decisions around the size and nature of police establishments and
support should be a matter for the Chief Constable and the board of the SPA. If
operational independence is to have any meaning, the number and operational
deployment of police officers should be a matter for the Chief Constable in light of
the budget approved.

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Relationships
Review submissions
The SPA is completely ineffective in holding Police Scotland to account. The
Chief Constable has too much power in non-operational matters. Policing
policies are not openly debated.
The Scottish Police Authority has an essential role to play in calling the force
to account on behalf of the Scottish public, but the current Authority (a simple
quango, all of whose members are appointed by the Minister) lacks the clout
and public standing which it needs.
It is clear from analysing the Scottish policing scene that a number of powerful
agencies and establishment groups have a huge influence over the way in which
policing is exercised in Scotland. Though not an exhaustive list, key amongst them
are:
Police Scotland, the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) and the local police
oversight committees of councillors, the Lord Advocate, Scottish Government
Ministers and their civil servants and the Scottish Parliament.
Some - perhaps all will see themselves as representing to a lesser or greater
extent public opinion and the public's voice in all matters law enforcement and
policing. What has become clear since policing reform however is the vital need for
each of these agents to play their full part in developing a police service capable of
policing communities by consent while maintaining the capacity to protect the
interests of Scotland as a nation at a time of crisis. To that extent, the reform
progress has been imperfect in its delivery. Too much time was spent creating
positive messages and sound bites, too many announcements regarding partnership
working but at the same time too little commitment to delivering on the basic needs
of people across our communities.
The Scottish Government seems to have failed to understand or has wilfully ignored
the importance of ensuring the relationships between all these agencies work
together to deliver an efficient and effective police service. As a result we have
witnessed a series of fudged outcomes, soft commentaries and reviews plainly
designed to avoid the realities of what has gone wrong. The fanfare of 'lessons
learned' has played too often on the back of soft peddled observations in respect of
the shortcomings thus far. A single, now acknowledged by the SNP, as a National
police service is also a police force. It is imperative that those we trust to lead and
direct that service or force are held to account no matter how painful that exercise
proves to be. Increasingly the public have concerns about privacy, technical
surveillance and the role of the police supporting Scottish Government policies. In
that light, transparency, good governance and effective accountability at the highest
levels will ensure the good health of policing for the next generation.

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Scottish Police Authority (SPA)

Put simply, the SPA has failed in its role to hold the Chief Constable to account and
to provide robust governance of Police Scotland.
The SPA should be on top of issues at national level, and of potential concerns
raised at local committees.
The SPA board should also be questioning and scrutinising policy changes, and
based on the evidence and arguments presented make a decision to ratify the
change or to request that more work be done. When it came to the policy change
which saw a blanket standing authorisation issued to firearms officers, and firearms
officers on routine calls, the SPA did not receive a full and comprehensive briefing on
the issue from the Chief Constable before implementation. It was rubber stamped
after the event as one policy change contained within a bulging folder of documents.
There was no scrutiny, and ratification was not given consciously or sought by the
Chief Constable.
Similarly, the SPA failed to provide any oversight with regard to the practice of stop
and search which was used in Scotland with far more regularity than in the
Metropolitan Police or by the New York Police Department (NYPD). The setting of
substantial targets for officers across Scotland contributing to the numbers of stop
searches rising to 600,000 in a year without SPA Board agreement is unacceptable.
The SPA has to demonstrate that it takes its scrutiny function seriously. The Chief
Constable of the Police Service of Scotland is an incredibly powerful and important
position. He or she has a great deal of responsibility to communities across this
country and the SPA, and local committees, are the main forums in which the Chief
Constable will be held to account. There has to be an expectation that key (nonoperational) projects, and any policy changes are brought before the SPA board for
ratification; that the board challenges the need and the details of any such proposal
to test its robustness; and then makes a decision whether to sign off the proposal or
to reject it, asking for more information or justification if necessary.
The Board, in its first few years, has been reactive to events. If it was playing its role
effectively, some of the controversies that have beset Police Scotland would have
been avoided.
Scottish Government
The Scottish Government has failed to take on board concerns about relationships at
play between key organisations. It has also failed to ensure that the hand-picked
Board of the SPA were aware of their role and were equipped to carry it out. The
Cabinet Secretary for Justice from the outset should have confirmed his relationship
with the Convenor of the SPA as the avenue to resolve police related issues. In
failing to do so, he left it open to allow political involvement in matters that should
have been solved between the Board and Police Scotland.
Again, the issue of the standing authorisation for firearms officers serves as a good
example. It wasnt that Board members didnt ask questions about the policy change
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 they didnt realise that any change to an arming of police policy was being
proposed.
The Scottish Government has also repeatedly suggested that questions or concerns
raised were asking the Scottish Ministers to get involved in policing and were
therefore threatening to the Chief Constables operational independence.
Operational independence is essential for the Chief Constable in times of urgency
and crisis when committee decisions are unrealistic and in regard to the investigation
of crime. However, Scottish Ministers have shown themselves to be selective as to
when they do or do not get involved. When Kenny MacAskill was Justice Secretary,
he received a private briefing from the Chief Constable on the issue of standing
authorisation whereas the SPA board did not.2 The First Minister Nicola Sturgeon
bypassed the SPA board when she contacted the Chief Constable directly regarding
the use of stop and search on children and announced that the practice would be
stopping forthwith.3 The Cabinet Secretary Michael Matheson felt able, on the benefit
of a briefing from Police Scotland to make public (and it proved inaccurate)
statements with regard to the crash off the M9 earlier this year.4 In each case,
Scottish Ministers involved themselves in issues that the SPA should have resolved.
If the Scottish Government had ensured that the SPA was more robust, these
interventions would not be necessary. The Cabinet Secretary or First Minister should
have contacted the Chair of the SPA Board rather than the Chief Constable.
Currently, the SPA has the demeanour of a rubber stamping body rather than one
tasked with holding the Chief Constable of Police Scotland to account. One reason
for this is perhaps that it doesnt know its role and purpose. The legislation is clear in
my view and ensures that Scottish Ministers appoint the Chair and Board of the SPA.
That Board, selected by the Chair from candidates approved by the Scottish
Government has to be made up of people with a proven record in delivering robust
governance. It also should not feel beholden to its benefactors, the Scottish
Government. The position of Chair of the SPA should therefore be made confirmable
by a vote of the whole parliament. While this may be symbolic in practice, it would
hopefully demonstrate that the Board is not merely an extension of the Scottish
Government, and give them more confidence to proceed when they need to.
The Scottish Government has failed to produce a full business case for Police
Scotland. Many MSPs asked for one, including myself. In fact, I asked for the full
business case at the first evidence-gathering panel held by the Justice Committee
into the Police and Fire Reform Act 2012.5
A business case should set out the justification for the reform; the justification for
following this reform instead of taking another action; of the costs involved; and a
detailed expectation of the benefits of the project. Creating a single police force is
the biggest public service reform in Scotland since devolution, and the biggest
2

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=9199&i=88975;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-31365283; http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottishnews/police-scotland-chief-set-consider-5111356
4
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/inquiry-scapegoat-fears-over-m9-crash-tragedy1-3830093#axzz3qcf8ia1l
5
Justice Committee Official Report 28 February 2012
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=7208&mode=pdf
3

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change to policing in 40 years. Yet there is no business case that was shared ahead
of time to educate the public of the reforms being undertaken and the expected
impact. And no business case to consult now to determine how the structures, as
currently operating, compare to the vision set out by Ministers.

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Staffing and targets

Review submissions
Officers [are] now being lumbered with extra work due to the severe cuts to
civilian staff.
"It is accepted that targets can be a very useful tool to improve services - but
when these become the sole incentive within an organisation the organisation
loses its way.

Scotland's police officers are doing their best under very difficult circumstances.
However, instead of doing the job they trained for, too many are having to fill back
office functions because of Scottish Government inspired cuts to civilian staff.
Thousands of civilian staff have been laid off, undervalued by the Scottish
Government whose commitment to 1000 extra officers without regard for the total
force strength. Highly trained officers are now completing various administrative
instead of being on the beat.
Backfilling
Much has already been said and even more denied by both the police and the SPA
in relation to backfilling. However, almost at every stage of this review process, we
have heard stories affecting intelligence, warrants, firearms, forensics,
administration, personnel, control rooms, custody suites and public counters where
civilian staff have been made redundant or moved to see their duties taken over by a
uniformed police officer.
For example, the Review learned that in one division, 130 police officers were
allocated support duties. Those duties included Service delivery (1 inspector 2
sergeants and 6 PCs); Licensing (1, 2 and 5); Operations planning (1, 2 and 8);
Prevention and intervention (1, 2 and 14); Divisional admin support (1, 5 and 58);
local authority liaison (0, 2 and 1); and Performance support (0, 0 and 18). Some of
these jobs may indeed require a police officers input, but on the whole, this cannot
be the best use of an officers time.
In addition, the better systems much needed across the police service would, without
doubt, enable many of the statistics gathered by these groups to be obtained without
the loss of so many trained and professional police officers. Those officers left on
the shifts responsible for responding to calls for assistance are feeling the pressures
they face and have a view that they are not prioritised sufficiently as a vital part of
the service in need of resources. For their part, support staff feel under threat as
they are shifted or made voluntarily redundant to accommodate policy imperatives.
The staff who leave take with them professionalism and knowledge invaluable in the
areas they previously worked. In one case referred to us, a section of support staff
first discovered they were no longer to be employed in their area of expertise when
they attended a PowerPoint presentation from a senior officer and noted the slide
17

colouring denoted they were superfluous to future requirements. These stories

circulate the force like wildfire and demotivated the very people the service relies
upon.
Selection Processes
Selection procedures and promotions created some comment from contributors
particularly in relation to senior ranks. The impact of those concerns can be seen in
the staff survey results recently published which found that only 21% understood
how promotion decisions were made. This lack of confidence in senior ranks is clear
with only 9% of respondents believing that senior managers in SPA/Police Scotland
would take action of the results of this Survey.6 [For SPA/Police Scotland survey see
Appendix 1; For ASPS Resilience Survey 2015 see Appendix 2]
Given the new arrangements for policing in this national set up, with all the rush
forward, little thought has been given to the ways in which command level officers
and senior staff are to be appointed. The absence of local input via the now defunct
Police and Fire Committee is an important shortcoming. In addition, the ability of Her
Majestys Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) to properly assess and
grade officers as they put themselves forward for these important posts is severely
restricted in the single service. Acceptance on the Strategic Command Course by
means of extended interviews, which used to be a pre-requisite, is apparently no
longer a requirement, as recent appointments to Police Scotland have shown.
At its heart, the selection process still has the Cabinet Secretary with substantial
influence over who will be successful. In other jurisdictions, appointments as a chief
officer would need ratification from the Legislature through a committee oversight.
That is not to say such a committee would decide on an appointment but having
reviewed the process of appointment such a committee would offer or with hold its
approval. Such a course of action would be worthy of consideration in these new
circumstances.
Targets
Evidence given to this review suggests the reorganisation of policing through target
indices has had the effect of creating silos in Police Scotland. Locally based officers,
centrally tasked, operate out with the divisional needs as they respond to immediate
tasking demands. As a result for example, traffic officers will be driven by the targets
set by their central command, though they work alongside divisional resources, who
are under stress to deliver on calls. Traffic personnel, firearms officers and control
room staff may desire to support their front line colleagues, but first and foremost in
their minds have been the targets set for them individually. For control rooms, that
has meant answering calls inside a certain time. What happened to the call, how
was it dealt with and did the caller feel happy with what the response was remained
unknown and without measurement. What did come over during the review however
was an impression that so long as the call was logged as handled in some way, the
target has been met and, therefore, the job is done. In the tragic case of the deaths
6

SPA/Police Scotland: Opinion Survey September 2015

http://www.scotland.police.uk/assets/pdf/138327/307421/spa-police-scotland-opinion-survey2015?view=Standard

18

of Lamara Bell and John Yuill on the M9, the target was met in so far as the call was
eventually handled. This demonstrates the deficiency of such a narrow, targetfocussed approach to policing.
In a separate development, the operation of PADS (public advice departments) and
flexible policing units may be seen as papering over the cracks, as they superficially
deal with volume calls and apparently fill the gaps but in essence act primarily as a
catch-all mechanism.

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Recommendations
Though much evidence was gathered by this review, a great deal more remains to
be unearthed. We can but hope the governments own review of Police Scotland will
apply its extensive resources to as wide and deep an examination of the critical
issues for the future as possible.
A copy of this review will be shared with the Cabinet Secretary for Justice to use as
he sees fit. For the sake of those who provide us with policing across Scotland, I
hope the Scottish Government take seriously the worrying signs noted throughout
this review and respond positively.

Improve Parliamentary oversight - The Scottish Parliament should

convene a committee of the Parliament to oversee the national emergency
services of police, fire and rescue, ambulance and coast guard in the context
of the national infrastructure arrangements and preparedness for
emergencies.

Ensure resources meet local needs - A resource audit must now be

conducted across the country to identify accurately the staff and resource
allocation for each 'community', whether that be at local authority or police
divisional levels, as decided by local committees. [See Appendix 3; example
of breakdown by borough of Met Police Officers deployed to Emergency
Response Teams]

Build a link between local committees and the SPA - Convenors of

local committees should be given a right of audience at the Scottish Police
Authority board meetings regarding issues that are beyond resolution at the
local level.

Ensure a properly balanced force - The Chief Constable with the

agreement of the SPA should determine the balance of the force required; to
ensure the most effective police force possible.

Enable better local oversight - All members of local committees should

be trained so that they can properly hold Police Scotland to account. There
should be a formal recognition that the primary purpose of local committees is
to hold divisional commanders to account on the issues that are important to
those committees.

Share best practice and concerns - There should be a recognised voice

for deputy and assistant chief constables in the gathering of information in
terms of policy. With the end of ACPOS no recognised forum is currently
available to capture those views.

A more robust SPA - The SPA must adapt its role in order to scrutinise
genuine governance in order to ensure high levels of public accountability for
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police activities and budgets. The Chair of the SPA should be made
confirmable by a vote of the whole parliament

Urgently review IT infrastructure - There is an urgent need for an active

review of IT strategy and IT deliverables. Given that accurate information and
intelligence is vital to policing the absence of a dependable end to end IT
provision is a risk too far in this modern age. We can buy products across the
world from Amazon and eBay more easily than police can access their own
databases across Scotland.

Clear complaint handling - The Police Investigation and Review

Commissioner (PIRC) should be given the sole responsibility for the conduct
of investigations alleging misconduct and criminality affecting the service. All
cases should be referred to PIRC who can refer back low level complaints to
Police Scotland.

Learn from the past: a full business case is crucial - There should be
an acknowledgement from the Scottish Government and the Scottish Police
Authority that the absence of a full business case before the commencement
of Police Scotland has created significant problems when taking forward a
reform of this magnitude.

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Appendix 1 summary of the SPA/Police Scotland Staff Survey 2015

Police Scotland currently employs 17,492 police officers and 5,946 support staff.
11,796 people took part in survey (50.4% response rate)
Information overload and organisational change

Nearly half of respondents feeling overloaded with information that they did
not need to know (47%) yet only 22% of respondents felt that they had
appropriate information on what Police Scotland want to achieve and 12% felt
they had appropriate information on what SPA want to achieve.
36% of respondents felt that they got the right amount of information to do
their job.
Officers feel they are losing touch with local people: Police Officers also
suggested that they felt their role was changing and expressed a concerned
that they were losing contact with local communities rather than increasing
their focus on local issues. Many of these comments mentioned a concern
related to a policing model adopted where they felt one size did not fit all
areas. (p.34)
19% of police officers believed the actions of senior management are
consistent with the forces values.
Only 21% knew how promotions decisions were made.
Only 9% believed those at the top would take action on the surveys results.

Undervalued and under resourced

47% of all respondents stated that they did not receive recognition for any
good work that they do and 37% stated they were not motivated to do the job
to the best of their ability
Only 15% felt valued and recognised for the work they do
47% of respondents felt that pressure at work was affecting their performance
at work. 16% of respondents strongly agreed with this statement, with the
balance of 31% agreeing with the statement.
30% felt that they had the resources they needed to do their job properly
Only 50% believed their work gave them a sense of personal achievement.
Only 30% receive recognition for any good work they do.
Only 18% thought they would be supported if they tried a new idea, even if it
did not work.

Wellbeing ignored
8% thought that the organisation was genuinely interest in the wellbeing of its
people

Only 60% felt able to raise issues about their physical health and 53% of their
mental health
22

Only 18% thought that they had been provided with opportunities for them to
develop their careers.
Only 18% receive training and development that is relevant to their future
career development.
Only 40% believed they were able to achieve a good work/life balance.
Only 15% felt valued and recognised for the work they do. Only 18% of police
officers felt valued for the work they do.
Only 37% are proud to work for the force.
Only 17% would recommend it as a good place to work.
33% of respondents saw themselves leaving SPA/Police Scotland in the near
future.
49% highlighted the pension changes as a reason to question their
commitment.

Full survey report - http://www.scotland.police.uk/assets/pdf/138327/307421/spapolice-scotland-opinion-survey-2015?view=Standard

23

Appendix 2 summary of the ASPS Resilience Survey 2015

Organisational and Demand Issues:

Senior management approach is harsh and unhelpful: 66%

Everyone tends to work long hours: 89%
Achieving performance targets is the top priority: 89%
Role places high level of demand on them: 95%
Role involves excessive breadth and depth of responsibility: 76%
Insufficient resources/staff to do job: 58%
Work hard because they dont want to be seen as weak: 48%

Key Points: Superintendents feel

they work in a high pressure,
competitive, cliquey environment that
is understaffed and under resourced.
Line Managers promote a healthier
work environment than Chief Officers,
although both must improve work
environment. Bullying behaviours
(unfair criticism, intimidation, verbal
insults, and misuse of power) are
present and must be addressed.
However, most members (82%) get a
buzz from working in the rank, and
90% see Police Scotland as their
personal vocation.
Health and Wellbeing: (uses HADS Scale respond with normal, mild, moderate, or
severe)

Anxiety: 26% Moderate or Severe

Depression: 7% Moderate or Severe
ONLY 23% take all annual leave days

Specific Concerns: Working Hours and Risks

82% may be in breach of European Working Time Directive

75% say they dont record their hours accurately because they are too busy or
its not a priority
18% say there is no appropriate system to record
their
hours
[There is an] emphasis on feeling
While 89% say they did not take sickness absence,
that you have to be at work
costs associated with 41% say they were treated for one or more health
presenteeism can be higher and conditions
more costly to the organizations
in the longer term than those
incurred due to absence.

Concluding Points:
Lack of personal control and insufficient resources
has led to unhealthy levels of anxiety and depression
among the members.
24

Mental health issues are unlikely to be reported openly since there is a culture
that promotes infallibility and seeking support as a weakness.
Individual wellbeing must be improved, which by consequence will enhance
the quality of service to communities.
ASPS executive has established Wellbeing Group to monitor and report on
progress and implement initiatives.

Full survey report - http://asps.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ASPS-ResilienceSurvey-2015.pdf

25

Appendix 3 Strength of Metropolitan Police Emergency Response Teams (ERTs), broken

down by Boroughs

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Appendix 4 - Review submissions

These submissions have been anonymised. Where necessary words have been inserted
by me or my team to replace specific locations or references. These words are in italics.
Submission 1:
In one Scottish city, the Control Room currently deal with all 999 calls for the legacy
Police area. The calls are dealt with in house in that they are received there and if
appropriate units are dispatched by the call takers. This often occurs whilst the original
caller is still on the phone to the Control Room. If there is a query the answer is
invariably within the room. A first class, non delayed service, assisted by the operators
having local knowledge of the area concerned.
By contrast Police Scotland's second class, delay entrenched method will be to have
operators in other cities and towns, unfamiliar with our area, taking the emergency calls,
creating electronic incidents and transferring these to Dundee. There will then be a wait
for Dundee staff to accept this transfer. Thereafter the Dundee operator, without our area
local knowledge, will have to scrutinise the information, including the location and the
specific details before then dispatching a unit.
And what if there is a query. Another inbuilt delay as the operator in Dundee will have to
contact the informant again to clarify the information. If that person is unavailable, a
situation that regularly occurs, the next option is to contact the originator of the
transferred call in the vast establishment in the other city or town. And if they are on
another call...what then?
The general public are unaware of this!
AND EVEN MORE WORRYING.............Neither does our First Minister.
In a recent Q & A session on Facebook she stated that Dundee would be taking 999
calls.
TOTALLY WRONG....not a clue.
I and the general public were in the hope that the recent motorway tragedy would never
be repeated and that the overriding process being put in place would be to avoid similar
delays....on the contrary, the process being put in place is far from that, and indeed a
second rate service compared to what they currently receive.
Submission 2:
I feel far too much emphasis has been put on the commitment to serving police officers
(SNP Pledge) meaning that officers are being used to fill office based roles ordinarily
filled by civilian staff in order to maintain this figure. These officers are better served out
in the community and longer term its proven to be more cost effective having civilianised
roles. Staffing levels at a minimum and targets increasingly becoming more difficult to
meet all the while the pay freeze impact on staff leading to low morale and feeling of
"only being a number" and not a valued member of the policing community.

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Submission 3:
The SPA is completely ineffective in holding Police Scotland to account. The Chief
Constable has too much power in non-operational matters. Policing policies are not
openly debated.
Local accountability has been lost. Old Police Boards, chaired by senior elected
members kept local issues to the fore, and the local forces were held much more
accountable to local areas than they are now. This is missing now, and needs to be
restored.
In my view, the single force can work, but it is currently too centralised, too focussed on
budgets cuts, and target driven.
Submission 4:
Whilst the Government may boast about the increase in local scrutiny of policing
arrangements in my view they are of little value. These Council led groups appear to
scrutinise police activity within certain defined parameters. The greatest weakness is
that the local police commander is not accountable to them. If Police Scotland chooses
to ignore the advice or recommendation provided by such a group it is free to do so.
Another great weakness is that there is no formal procedure or forum where these
scrutiny groups can meet with the Scottish Police Authority or central government to air
any concerns they have about policing in their area.
Submission 5:
1. There is no doubt that the decision to establish a single Scottish police force was
the right one (and long overdue). Under the old structure there were 5 tiny forces
which simply did not have the expertise or range of experience to cope with the
challenges of modern policing.
2. However the model chosen for the new single force was over-centralised and did
not take account of local circumstances and views. Most policing is local (over
75%) and local communities ought to have an input into how this is organised,
local priorities and plans, and their delivery. It would be perfectly possible, within
the context of a single force, to establish (statutory) police committees with the
ability to discuss and agree priorities and business plans for a particular area and
to call the local Assistant Chief Constable to account. I would be thinking in terms
of setting up 6 or so committees across Scotland to reflect (to some extent) the
geographical diversity of Scotland. Membership of the committees would consist
of councillors nominated by each of the councils for that area.
3. The Scottish Police Authority has an essential role to play in calling the force to
account on behalf of the Scottish public, but the current Authority (a simple
quango, all of whose members are appointed by the Minister) lacks the clout and
public standing which it needs. Ideally the Authority should be directly elected, but
there are other options. It could be elected by the Parliament (in effect as a
parliamentary committee). Or its composition could be determined statutorily so
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that, for example the regional police committees at 2 above could each have the
right to nominate one member with the balance being added by the Minister.
4. In any event the Chair of the Police Authority should be a public figure who is
accountable to the Parliament and not just to the Minister. One way of seeking to
achieve this would be to provide that his or her appointment should be subject to
confirmation by the Parliament.
5. The position of the Inspectorate of Constabulary needs to be addressed. The
Inspectorate has an important potential role to play in providing an independent,
professional assessment of how the force is performing. However the Scottish
inspectorate has always been less powerful than the English Inspectorate which,
it should be noted, is now headed by someone who is not a policeman. By
comparison the Scottish Inspectorate is headed by someone who was formerly an
Assistant Chief Constable in the force he is now inspecting; in a rank conscious
service (and however able the incumbent may be) this counts! More
fundamentally it is questionable whether an Inspectorate which inspects only one
force serves a useful purpose, given that one of its main functions (since Victorian
times) has been to compare different forces and to raise the standards of the
weaker to those of the best. In order to provide an independent assessment of
how the Scottish force is performing in relation to other comparable police forces
(ie outwith Scotland), expertise needs to be brought in from the rest of the UK,
Europe and even the US.
6. Another option which should be considered is to absorb the Inspectorate of
Constabulary into a wider Justice Services Inspectorate, to include the Prisons
Inspectorate, the Courts Inspectorate and the criminal justice element of the
Social Work Inspectorate. Such an Inspectorate would then be able to review how
criminal justice is delivered across the range of services, rather than from different
silos. I would however reiterate the point that perspectives from outwith Scotland
would be very valuable.

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