Report Summary
The roles and responsibilities of the Scottish Police Authority (the Authority) and Police Scotland in relation to strategic planning are set out in the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 at Sections 34 and 35.
Under the Act, the Authority is responsible for producing a Strategic Police Plan and involves the Chief Constable of Police Scotland in developing it.
The alignment of strategic direction, priorities for policing, planning and performance assessment is articulated in this Plan.
This Strategic Police Plan for Scotland requires ministerial approval prior to publication and laying before Parliament.
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Values and Core Delivery Principles
Recognising the distinct but complementary roles of the Scottish Police Authority, Forensic Services and Police Scotland, each organisation has a specific set of values.
The Authority’s values are Respect, Integrity and Public Service.
Forensic Services values are Integrity, Impartiality and Professionalism.
Police Scotland’s values are Integrity, Fairness, Respect and Human Rights.
The common value across each part of the system is integrity, which reflects the absolute centrality and criticality of legitimacy, public trust and the importance of the concept of policing by consent.
Ensuring consistent compliance with our values, and having them at the centre of our policing system culture, underpin our strategies, policies, practices, decision-making and individual interactions with communities, colleagues, stakeholders and partners
Delivery principles
Four common core delivery principles apply across the policing system, underpinning the strategic outcomes. These delivery principles describe our common approach to how we deliver services across Police Scotland, Forensic Services and the Authority.
Delivery Principle One: Deliver effective, high quality and values-driven policing services that improve local and personal outcomes for people, places and communities.
Delivery Principle Two: Deliver policing in a positive and professional way that maintains its legitimacy and inspires public trust and confidence
Delivery Principle Three: Deliver ethical, impartial, anti-discriminatory and rights-based policing services
Delivery Principle Four: Deliver policing efficiently and sustainably, in a way that achieves best value
Our core delivery principles provide coherence, stability and a focal point to reflect and respond to the strategic environment, in which policing is challenged with delivering effective oversight, scientific excellence, safer communities, and an effective response to crime threat and harm; whilst adapting to the changing external landscape in which we operate.
We recognise the increasing, and increasingly complex, demands on and for policing and the changing nature of threats to citizens and crime and the importance of prevention and early intervention.
This strategic policing plan builds on insights from the public, partners, colleagues and stakeholders and shapes a future policing response to changing threats to maintain safety and wellbeing through dedication, innovation and continuous improvement.
The principle of policing by consent is fundamental to Scotland’s social fabric. Providing a fair, just and effective policing response relies on earned trust with communities from which policing draws its legitimacy.
Future developments in policing and the innovative use of technology will require ongoing dialogue with the public about how to find a proportionate and explainable balance between individual privacy and public and community safety and protection.
The governance and oversight of policing is characterised by openness, transparency and clear accountability, where decisions regarding service development and transformation are made in the public interest and underpinned by legality, proportionality, evidence, recognition of best practice, take account of operational and strategic risk and reflect changes in the external environment.
