These arrangements have been updated in line with ACAS guidance and the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) 8-step guide for preventing workplace sexual harassment. Further changes may be made to ensure the Procedures continue to comply with employment legislation and good practice.
The Independent Support and Advocacy Service can provide you with advice and ongoing support if you have been affected by bullying and harassment, including sexual harassment, regardless of whether or not you choose to make a complaint. The Service is available for current Members, MSP staff and SPS staff.
The Service provides:
Information you provide to the Support and Advocacy Service will not be disclosed to anyone else unless you give consent to do so, or there is a safeguarding risk. Anonymised reports will be provided to the Director of People, Communications and Inclusion who will take further action where there appears to be trends or problem areas.
You do not have to give your name when accessing the Service, however, if you decide to make a formal complaint you will be required to provide your name to enable a fair and thorough investigation to take place.
Details of how to contact the Independent Support and Advocacy Service are available on the Bullying and Harassment - Complaints and Support intranet pages.
It can be difficult and stressful to take forward a complaint. Our procedures are designed to provide a range of options so you can choose the option that’s most appropriate and comfortable for you.
If you have been subject to any form of bullying and harassment, including sexist behaviour or sexual harassment, you’re encouraged in the first instance to contact the Independent Support and Advocacy Service. They will empathetically listen and signpost you to information to help you decide how you want to deal with this. If the information you give to the support service indicates that a criminal offence may have taken place, they’ll give you advice to assist you in coming to a decision on how to take this forward.
What you decide to do will depend on a range of factors, such as the seriousness of the behaviour and what outcome you want.
Employers will include informal steps to resolve grievances in their policies as this can be the most effective way of dealing with them. However, particularly as bullying and harassment can often stem from a power imbalance, it’s not always possible or desirable to deal with something informally. The key issue is that you decide what’s the most appropriate route for you.
Any form of victimisation for raising a complaint is not acceptable within the Parliament. If you raise a formal complaint, help another person to make such a complaint, or cooperate in an investigation, there are arrangements in place to protect you from being victimised or unfairly treated. This means you will not be treated badly because you played a valuable role in creating and promoting a safe workplace for everyone.
Whoever you approach will be expected to take your complaint seriously and establish the facts of the case. Even though the complaint has been raised on an informal basis, it might be more practical or appropriate for the facts to be established by someone independent of the line management chain. In those circumstances, the People Services Team can arrange for an independent service provider to carry this out.
The type of action that might be taken will vary, but could include:
Please note that you do not have to raise your concern informally prior to making a formal complaint if you do not think it is appropriate.
If you haven’t been able to resolve your complaint informally, if there’s a recurrence of the behaviour or if you think it’s not appropriate to resolve it informally, you can make a formal complaint. Formal complaints may also be raised by Trade Union representatives or staff representatives, or by witnesses to incidents of bullying or harassment. Investigations into formal complaints will be carried out by an Independent Investigator. This will be someone who is independent of the Parliament and of political parties. This means that investigatory and disciplinary processes will be separate and carried out by different people.
Formal complaints should be made in writing using the templates below.
The form will be received by the Scottish Parliament’s People Services Team who will commission an Independent Investigator (and notify the respondent’s employer). In the case of complaints against MSP’s, complaints can also be made to the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland (the Ethical Standards Commissioner) using their complaints form.
The process that the Ethical Standards Commissioner will follow is set out in Section 9 of the Guidance on the Code of Conduct. The sanctions that can be applied are also set out in section 9.
Alternatively, complaints about MSP’s can be submitted directly to the relevant Political Party.
For all other complaints, the process is set out as follows:
The Investigator will aim to complete their investigation as soon as possible. Although each case will have differing degrees of complexity, investigations should ideally be completed within 2 months. The Investigator will contact the complainant and respondent if this timescale cannot be achieved and advise them of the anticipated timescale.
The report will summarise the issues raised and the statements made by all parties and it will set out the Investigator’s findings and conclusions. Witness statements will not normally be shared to allow the investigation to be conducted in a full and frank manner but at the same time protecting everyone involved in the process. However, all statements will be summarised in the report and taken account of in the Investigator’s findings and conclusions. The final report will be shared with the complainant and respondent. However, all concerned, including witnesses, should be made aware that the report and all statements made in the course of the investigation may be disclosed in the course of a claim to an employment tribunal.
Complaints against MSPs are dealt with under the Code of Conduct for MSPs and the Commissioner’s report will be referred to the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee (SPPA committee).
For all other complaints, the report will be given to the appropriate employer (whether SPCB or MSP – where the complaint is against their member of staff or a contractor) to determine what action to take on the basis of the report. The employer may decide:
If a complaint is not upheld that means, for the complainant, that nothing further will be done. Therefore, the complainant can appeal the decision not to uphold the complaint. They should set out the reasons for this in writing.
If the complaint is upheld, the respondent will have a right to appeal (either through grievance or disciplinary processes) the sanction or action being proposed.
Different employers and political parties have their own disciplinary procedures. However, for there to be consistency of approach, we ask that the following principles apply, regardless of the procedure:
Employers will determine appropriate sanctions to be applied at the relevant disciplinary hearing. In the case of non-MSPs, these could range from oral warnings to formal written warnings and, in some cases, dismissal. Repetition of the inappropriate behaviour can result in the most serious sanctions being applied. Parliamentary sanctions for MSPs are determined by the SPPA committee and the Parliament and political sanctions, such as removing the whip, are determined by the relevant party.
As we are not placing a time limit on taking a complaint under these procedures in relation to the Sexual Harassment Policy, formal complaints can be taken against people who no longer work for or at the Parliament. This is important as it ensures that people have the opportunity to have their complaints investigated and for the relevant employer to learn any lessons from the way behaviour may have been dealt with in the past.
Such complaints will be investigated in the same way as any other formal complaints.
A copy of the report will be given to both the complainant and respondent. A copy will also be given to the relevant former employer. Although the employer cannot take sanctions against someone who no longer works for them, they can look at whether any lessons can be learned. Depending on the circumstances, the copy provided to the former employer may be anonymised.
Following consultation with the complainant, the report could be passed to the police if evidence of criminality emerged during the investigation.
Complaints against former MSPs can be referred to the Ethical Standards Commissioner and dealt with under the Code of Conduct.
As we are not placing a time limit on taking a complaint under these procedures in relation to the Sexual harassment policy, people who no longer work at the Parliament can submit a formal complaint. The same procedure will be followed as if the complaint had been submitted by someone who still works here.
Throughout any informal or formal process, both complainants and respondents can access support. Support for complainants is provided by our Independent Support and Advocacy Service. Contractors who work at the Parliament can access support from their employer. Respondents who are current members of staff or MSPs can access support from our Employee Assistance Provider.
Managers may also need to consider whether different working arrangements would be appropriate while an investigation is ongoing (remembering that any actions should not be seen as pre-empting the outcome or compromising the confidentiality of the process).
It is also important to provide management support once the process has finished. Unless the process has resulted in someone being dismissed, the complainant and respondent may still be working in close proximity.
Managers should be alert to, and take action over, any victimisation of the person who made the complaint or any retaliation against the person against whom the complaint was made.
Some of the measures that might need to be considered are:
Not all of these options will be available or appropriate in every situation and care should be taken to find out what the individual affected by the behaviour may want to do.
Where behaviour has been alleged that would potentially amount to a criminal offence, e.g. physical or sexual assault, the staff member is encouraged to report the matter to the police, and also to the Director of People, Communication and Inclusion, in order that support may be provided and appropriate action taken. The Director is unable to make a report to the police on the individual’s behalf.