Response

The Scottish Police Authority has considered your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act (FOISA).

In response to part one of your request, headed oversight of enforcement infrastructure. Information on oversight of technologies over the period 1 January 2023 to current is held. Clarification was requested in an effort to reduce the information in scope to a specific type of technology within a specific timeframe. Clarification did not narrow the scope, nor reduce the volume of information held. Therefore, we are unable to provide this information as it would prove too costly within the context of the fee regulations.

To explain, an initial review of information relating to just two types of technologies that would be considered in scope of your request returned a minimum of 16 documents. Collectively this information consists of over 2000 pages, and as an example, one governance document alone consists of 154 pages. This document will have information throughout that is commercially sensitive, which if disclosed would likely prejudice substantially the commercial interests of an organisation or the Authority, and therefore is considered exempt under FOISA. Therefore, this would require individual review by the relevant Head of Service as well as, in some cases, the Authority’s Head of Legal to identify information to be redacted. The Authority has assessed that the £600 cost limit within the Act equates to 40 hours of work, and we estimate that it would exceed these thresholds to process your request.

The Authority recognises that technology in policing is a matter of public interest. Therefore, to assist, a list of publicly available resources is provided. This demonstrates the broad landscape your request covers and may assist you in narrowing any future request to specific aspects of a specific technology. For example, information held in relation to how long Body Worn Video data is retained for, or the operational protocol for Body Worn Video, or the Equality Human Rights Impact Assessment for Live Facial Recognition.

Body Worn Video

• Public Briefing on Body Worn Video
• Police Scotland’s dedicated web page for Body Worn Video
• Police Scotland’s Body Worn Video Standard Operating Procedure (operational protocol). This includes key information on when to record, what to record, the use of pre-recording, the use of the cameras in various settings, retention and sharing of recordings etc.
• Police Scotland’s EqHRIA summary results for the introduction of Body Worn Video.

Live Facial Recognition

• Discussion Paper on the Potential Adoption of Live Facial Recognition by Police Scotland - Summary
• Live Facial Recognition Report - 10 June 2025
• Live Facial Recognition - 10 December 2024

Drones (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems)

• Public briefing on Police Scotland's use of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (Drones) - September 2024
• Air Support Strategic Plan - 11 June 2024
• RPAS Update - 15 June 2023
• Drones Downlink System & Service Update - 17 March 2022
• Air Support Unit RPAS Code of Practice
• Police Scotland’s dedicated webpage for Air Support Unit and Drones

Biometric Identification

• The Forensic Information Databases Service (FINDS) - the FINDS Unit in the Home Office manages national biometric databases on behalf of policing. This includes information on the National DNA Database, National Fingerprint Database and National Footwear Database.
• Memorandum of Understanding for the Provision of Forensic Services in Scotland, see sections 3.4, 6.2, pages 37, 39 and 40.
• Police Scotland’s dedicated web page for Biometrics

In response to part two of your request headed Private Session Transparency and Redaction Protocols. The Authority publishes the minute of private sessions of its Complaints and Conduct Committee on the Authority’s website. Private minutes are considered and approved at the next scheduled meeting of the committee. For example, the minutes of Complaints and Conduct Committee meetings held on 24 November 2024 and 19 December 2024 were published, considered and approved at a meeting of the committee held on 24 February 2025 (see items 2.2 and 2.3 here).

All other committees of the Authority summarise their considerations in both public and private session in a Committee Chair’s Report which is presented to the preceding full Authority meeting. Committee Chair’s reports are generally published at Item 4 on Authority meeting agendas. For example, the most recent Committee Chair reports were reported to the full Authority on 21 August 2025 (item 4).

The Authority does not have a formal redaction or review process.

In response to part three of your request headed Jurisdictional Authority and Corporate Identity. The Authority does not hold information.

The Scottish Police Authority is not registered as a corporation or company. The Authority was established by statute as a “body corporate” through the The Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012. The Scottish Government’s guide to public bodies sets out the public bodies landscape in Scotland, see section 12-13 for information related to the Authority.