Justice Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Official Report 301KB pdf

Justice Sub-Committee on Policing (Report Back)

Agenda item 2 is feedback from the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing on its meeting of 11 May 2017. Following the verbal report, there will be an opportunity for brief comments or questions. I refer members to paper 1, which is a note by the clerk. As Mary Fee was not able to attend the meeting, I will provide the feedback.

The sub-committee met on 11 May, when it held a round-table evidence session on the role of local police commanders. It heard from local police commanders and local authorities representing a number of areas of Scotland.

The local police commander role was introduced by the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012. The sub-committee heard that, in the main, it is working well and good progress is being made. There were examples of good practice and of effective relationships between local commanders and area commanders, as well as acknowledgement of continuing challenges.

The next meeting of the sub-committee is scheduled for Thursday 18 May 2017, when it will take evidence from Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority on the Auditor General for Scotland’s 2015-16 audit of the Scottish Police Authority and on Audit Scotland’s review of Police Scotland’s i6 programme.

If there are no questions from members, we will move into private. The committee will next meet on 23 May, when we will take evidence on the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. We will also consider the Limitation (Childhood Abuse) (Scotland) Bill at stage 2.