Report Summary
This report provides members of the Scottish Police Authority Policing Performance Committee with an overview of insights and highlights from the Independent Custody Visiting scheme from April – October 2025.
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Meeting
The publication discussed was referenced in the meeting below
Policing Performance Committee - 16 September 2025
Date : 09 December 2025
Location : online
Background
Chapter 16 of the 2012 Police and Fire Reform Act (Scotland) sets out the Authority’s requirement for the provision of an independent custody visiting service in order that visitors may:
• Visit detainees.
• Access information relevant to the treatment of detainees and conditions in which they are detained.
• Monitor the treatment of detainees and the conditions in which they are detained.
The act also states that the Authority’s arrangements may …
• Provide appointment arrangements for suitable persons to become a visitor.
• Authorise Independent Custody Visitors to do anything which the Authority considers necessary to enable them to visit and monitor treatment of detainees and the conditions in which they are held.
• Provide for reporting on each visit.
• Keep the arrangements under review and revise them as it thinks fit; and
• Prepare and publish such reports on independent custody visiting as the Scottish Ministers may reasonably require.
