Who We Are

The Scottish Police Authority is independent of both the Scottish Government and policing. It is the primary governance body for policing in Scotland, and was established as a public body on 1 April 2013 by the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012. It was set up to hold the Chief Constable to account; promote, support and oversee improvement in policing. It is also responsible for the management and delivery of Forensic Services in Scotland and Independent Custody Visiting Scotland.

In this section, find out more about the Authority’s priorities, the Board and the Leadership team.

Who We Are

What We Do

The Scottish Police Authority is responsible for maintaining policing. It has four specific areas of responsibility:

promoting the policing principles

supporting continuous improvement

keeping policing under review

holding the Chief Constable to account.

This section tells you in outline what the Authority does.

What We Do

News & Insights

In this section you will find news and insight articles by the Scottish Police Authority, which is committed to communicating regularly about our work and about the issues affecting policing in Scotland.

News

The Authority regularly communicates about our activities and oversight of policing.

In this section you will find our latest news articles.

Find out more about News

Insights

In this section, we share articles from various individuals and organisations providing insight into the issues facing policing in Scotland.

Find out more about What we think

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News & Insights

News

Insights