We take these matters very seriously. We took on board the comments that Drew Livingstone’s colleagues in Unison made about process and procedure. It was actually the SPA that requested that Her Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary in Scotland carry out its review. You are right to say that there were a number of significant issues. HMICS made 39 recommendations in total and, as far as I am aware, 35 of them have been discharged, with four remaining in process.
In addition, we set up a CCU steering group, which was chaired by a member of the Police Authority. It was set up to work collaboratively with Police Scotland colleagues and to scrutinise the processes that were being implemented. The group also had representation from the staff associations, the trade unions and external stakeholders. The output from that is what Alan Speirs has put, and is putting, in place. We are supportive of that, but we know that we must continue to monitor it as we move through.
We have introduced some additional processes. For example, every time that somebody raises a complaint or an issue in relation to a member of the anti-corruption unit, the referral to Police Scotland is automatically notified to the SPA. The SPA then dip samples those, probably three or four times a year, depending on the volume.
To date, six referrals have been received, but they are not yet at a stage at which we can dip sample them. We have to leave them for three months, because that includes a period during which the people who are complaining can take what they consider to be an unsatisfactory outcome to the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner, and it would be inappropriate for us to intervene before then.
Those processes are in place and we will continue to review them. The policing committee that has recently been set up in the SPA will take a keen interest in the matter, so there will be regular reports; there will also be regular reports to the SPA’s audit committee about how the procedure is performing, which will include statistics to measure and monitor that. Anything of significance will be discussed at the full board.