A thriving workforce

Police (Ethics, Conduct & Scrutiny) Scotland Act 2025 (PECSS)
As previously reported, on Wednesday, 25 June, 2025, the first commencement regulations of the Police (Ethics, Conduct & Scrutiny) Scotland Act 2025 came into force.

Significant work continues within Police Scotland to implement the act.
Good progress is being made in relation to the development of a code of ethics, including consultation with staff associations and unions, including the Scottish Police Federation and the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, our diversity staff associations and with a human rights advisor.

Over a period of years, Police Scotland has driven a focus on our values and standards of professional behaviour and the refreshed code of ethics will reflect that focus.

Progress is also being made to provide Police Scotland’s view in relation to new vetting and conduct regulations which are being developed by the Scottish Government.

Strong engagement with the Authority continues, including through the Complaints and Conduct Committee earlier this month.

Workforce survey

Our 2025-26 workforce survey opened in August and we have now closed the survey, with 10,770 respondents, equivalent to 46% of the workforce.

Last year's survey findings underlined the commitment and teamwork of officers and staff, while also highlighting areas for improvement which have informed action by the Service and the Chief Officer Team.

This year's question set was very similar, with minor improvements based on learning from last year's survey along with some new questions.

At a high level, we are seeing a continued strong team ethos and some improvement across culture and the quality of supervisors and first line management.

We are working closely with the survey providers, Progressive Partnership, to understand the quantitative findings, including benchmarking, while qualitative analysis of over 23,000 open-ended comments continues.

Further internal and external communication and engagement will continue, and national level results will be reported through the Authority, while more detailed analysis will enable targeted action at divisions and departments.

The results will help me and the Chief Officer Team to assess the extent to which change is being felt and understand what more needs to be done to improve the experiences of our officers, staff and volunteers.

Oath of office

On Thursday, 6 November, our latest cohort of 165 probationers made the declaration of a constable at swearing-in ceremonies across the country, bringing officer establishment to 16,532.

Deputy Chief Constable Bex Smith addressed the new recruits at a ceremony in Police Scotland’s Headquarters, Tulliallan, and Director of HR, Katy Miller attended an event in Edinburgh. Senior officers from local policing divisions were also in attendance at the other four ceremonies which took place in the North, East and West of the country.

I thank our new recruits for stepping forward to help safeguard Scotland’s communities and wish them well in their two-year probationary journey. When they deploy to local policing divisions on 9 March next year they will uphold our values at all times.

Review of probationer training

A review of probationer training is under way to ensure it remains fit for purpose and prepares new officers to meet the operational requirements of their role.

It seeks to identify and address gaps in probationers’ knowledge, ability and behaviour; refine governance and re-define the role of tutor constables.

It will support the organisation in delivering a solid baseline of training which meets the needs of modern-day policing and equips officers with the right foundation to build their operational experience upon.

Part of the review will see the initial 13-week probationer training course be extended to 15 weeks, beginning in January with the first intake of the new year. The extension will facilitate a redesign of the course to include more contextualised, practical learning and additional fitness and wellbeing education.

This review shows commitment to policing excellence and will provide an inclusive, accurate and evidence-based analysis of Police Scotland’s two-year probationer training programme. Without it, the organisation risks delivering outdated or misaligned training which leaves officers ill equipped to do their job.

Chief Officer Team responsibilities

Assistant Chief Constable Emma Bond has taken on a UK role within Policing Reform Lead Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe's team, initially until March 2026.

Police Scotland has strong experience of successful reform and Emma's appointment can further strengthen our engagement with broader UK policing to share learning and best practice.

Following this appointment, I have made changes to Chief Officer responsibilities.

Assistant Chief Constable Mark Sutherland, has taken on oversight of Criminal Justice and our Contact, Command, and Control (C3) Division, strengthening alignment between our initial contact from the public and the progression of cases through the broader criminal justice system.

ACC Sutherland will report into Deputy Chief Constable for Transformation, Bex Smith, reflecting the significant work ongoing within policing and across partners to introduce digitally enabled efficiencies, one example being the digitally enabled sharing capability (DESC).

ACC Wendy Middleton will take command of Local Policing West.

As an interim position until March, ACC Middelton and ACC for Local Policing East Tim Mairs will provide oversight for divisional commanders in the north of the country, with ACC Mairs supporting commanders in North East (A) and Tayside (D) Division and ACC Middleton taking responsibility for Highland and Islands (N) Division.