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

Complaints

Are you dissatisfied with the service you have received from policing in Scotland?

The Scottish Police Authority, Police Scotland and the Police Investigations and Reviews Commissioner (PIRC) all have a role to play in considering complaints about policing in Scotland.

In this section, find out who to direct your complaint to. We also welcome written communication in Gaelic (see our Gaelic Language Plan).

Complaints

Publication Library

The Authority is committed to conducting its activity in an open and transparent manner, and in a way that builds trust and confidence in policing.

In this section we aim to make as much of our information as possible available, accessible and searchable. Our publication scheme summarises all of the information we publish. This aims to improve public access to the information we hold and encouraging public awareness of, and participation in, the decisions we make.

Where possible we provide a suitable HTML alternative and / or make documents accessible. Please contact us if you would like to request a corporate publication in an alternative format.

Scottish Police Authority - Publication Scheme

Published: 25 July 2023

Publication People Committee

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Publication Library

Annual Police Workforce Report - 21 June 2023

Procurement Annual Report - 8 August 2023

SPA Analysis: "Human Rights Review of Children and Young People: Strip Searching in Police Custody" Northern Ireland Policing Board

HMICS Assurance Review of Forensic Toxicology Provision – Improvement Plan - 10 August 2023

SPA Analysis: State of Policing: The Annual Assessment of Policing in England and Wales 2022, HMICFRS, 9th June 2023

Custody Visiting Annual Report 2022-23

FOI 2023/24-024 - Police call outs to private address - Info not held by SPA

Defence Access Policy

Quality Policy Statement

Joint Police Scotland and SPA Mainstreaming and Equality Outcomes Progress Report - April 2021-2023

Bi-Annual Your Safety Matters Report - 31 May 2023

Fair Work Annual Assessment - 31 May 2023