Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Official Report 858KB pdf

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Police Call Handling

We have heard the ministerial statement on police call handling. We will now take questions on it.

I am grateful to the cabinet secretary for early sight of his statement.

I welcome today’s report, commend Police Scotland on meeting all 30 recommendations, and thank each and every police officer and staff member who works in C3 division. They do a very difficult job in high-pressure circumstances.

In his statement, the cabinet secretary talked about “openness” and “accountability”. Will he support calls that data on the number of notable incidents be published regularly, so that we can monitor the level of mistakes and Police Scotland’s progress in reducing them? Given that the report notes “uncertainty” around investment, will he commit today to long-term funding being made available to support upgrading of crucial information technology in the C3 systems?

I welcome Liam Kerr’s recognition of the dedication of the staff in Police Scotland’s contact, command and control division, who do an excellent job and work extremely hard on our behalf each and every day to keep our communities safe, and to provide the best response that they can provide to members of the public who contact the police.

A quarterly report on police call handling is provided to the SPA. It provides the information that Liam Kerr referred to. I hope that he recognises—given that his colleagues have previously raised issues about notable incidents—that the notable incident system was put in place because one of the recommendations from HMICS was to ensure that data on calls that were not handled correctly was properly captured so that it could be used as a way of driving improvement in the service. Police Scotland should be commended for having done that.

To reinterpret the information as though it is a negative for the organisation is not constructive. That is not to say that Police Scotland should not be scrutinised and that it should not be held to account for how it addresses issues that come from the notable incidents data. However, the information is provided quarterly to the SPA at its public board meeting in order to demonstrate Police Scotland’s call-handling performance.

On investment “uncertainty”, a key part of my statement was about the additional investment that we have provided to Police Scotland to support and speed up its putting in place the ICT infrastructure that it wants. As Liam Kerr will be aware, eight of HMICS’s recommendations, which are contained in the final report, refer to wider work that sits within Police Scotland’s next three-year improvement programme. A big part of that programme is investment in areas including ICT. The £31 million policing reform budget that we have provided this year will support such work. We are continuing to invest in the Police Service to allow that improvement to take place. I expect that the service will look at what future investment in ICT plans it will require, and at how that can be managed as part of the wider improvement work that it is undertaking through its transformation programme.

I thank the minister for advance sight of his statement. I, too, welcome the report and its useful recommendations. However, when we are talking about the report, we cannot forget about the tragic circumstances that led to its being required—the deaths of John Yuill and Lamara Bell, which pointed to significant shortcomings. Our thoughts should be with their families and friends as we consider the issue.

I highlight the report’s recommendation on how change in policing should be managed, including through giving SPA board members a role in governance of change, and through ensuring that scrutiny takes place in public. Does the minister agree that those principles should be applied to the significant change that the British Transport Police integration represents?

I note HMICS’s work with local police divisions on area control room integration. Police officers consistently point to the number of available officers being the single biggest barrier to responding to calls. Will the review look beyond interfaces to resourcing levels and how they impact on police responses?

I have mentioned that the Scottish Police Authority is looking to set up a committee that is dedicated to transformation and reform, which I welcome. Transparency in the process is an important part of accountability, when reform is being taken forward in the police service.

On Daniel Johnson’s second point about HMICS’s work on area control rooms and the link with local divisions, he will be aware that the call-handling report has been presented to Parliament as it has because I directed the review to report to the Scottish Government. HMICS reports are not, by and large, directed by ministers; they are part of its own work programme, which it progresses as part of its on-going assurance work.

The work that HMICS undertakes on area control rooms is a matter for HMICS; how it further interrogates any information that it becomes aware of during that inspection is a matter for HMICS. Having said that, I have no doubt that if Daniel Johnston has concerns about how resources are being deployed by area control rooms, HMICS would be more than happy to engage with him about those concerns and the issues that he considers its investigation should look at, to ensure that they are given due consideration. Therefore, I encourage the member to engage directly with HMICS. I have no doubt that it will take those issues into account as it plans its work programme on area control rooms and how they link with local police divisions.

Her Majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary in Scotland has recommended that there be a route map for investment, and that C3 ICT systems be developed as soon as possible. Will the cabinet secretary explain further what support the Scottish Government is providing to Police Scotland to allow that work to be carried out?

Police Scotland is undertaking a range of work on its existing ICT infrastructure. At the last SPA board meeting, it indicated the level of investment that it considers might be necessary in the coming years. That comes off the back of Audit Scotland’s recommendation about Police Scotland’s plans to take forward its ICT investment. It is important that the service continues to ensure that it considers how investment should be shaped around information technology, which includes the C3 division.

I made reference to the points around the additional money that we have provided to support early investment in some of the work that the service wants to undertake in ICT in the C3 division, and to some of the benefits that we have seen as a result of that. I expect that the service will continue to refresh its ICT programmes.

ICT is an important element, but so is the work that is being done around the new assessment model that Police Scotland plans to introduce later this year, along with the public engagement model. I suspect that that will also help the service to improve how it engages with members of the public when they contact Police Scotland.

I thank the cabinet secretary for early sight of his statement.

The HMICS report shows that, in 2013-14, Police Scotland’s 101 number received 3.3 million calls, but in 2016-17, the latest period from which we have full data, that number had fallen to 2.6 million calls. Does the cabinet secretary agree that Police Scotland has to reach out and ensure that communities know that the 101 number is available? Does he also agree that directing people away from the 999 number but continuing to listen to their non-emergency issues on the 101 number is vital to public safety?

I am sure that Maurice Corry recognises that 2.6 million calls to 101 is a significant number of calls over the course of a year. One of the areas of work that Police Scotland has been taking forward is to ensure that that service is used appropriately and for the right purposes. Police Scotland has been taking forward education work to ensure that the public have greater understanding of when they should use 101 and when they should use 999, and also to ensure that, when people use 101, it is for an issue that requires police assistance, although not emergency assistance. As members will all recognise, there have been a number of occasions when the 101 service has not been used appropriately and has instead been used for a variety of other purposes. Police Scotland has published information demonstrating how the service has not been used appropriately.

The change in demand is not purely down to people using the 101 number appropriately, but I think that it reflects greater recognition on the part of the public about what the number is for. However, having said that, I think that the fact that there have been 2.6 million calls demonstrates the level of demand that the service has to meet.

The public engagement programme that Police Scotland will introduce later this year is about how the public can engage with Police Scotland. The service is considering a number of ways in which that can be done: it does not have to be through the 101 number, but can be done via other means. That will be part of the consultation exercise that will be carried out over the latter part of this year. That will help to improve how contact can be made with the police in a way that best reflects the needs of the public.

I hope that Maurice Corry will be reassured that Police Scotland wants to reach out, and to ensure that people are using the service appropriately, but it also wants to consider the existing model to see whether it can improve it in a way that allows the public to contact the police in a variety of ways other than through the 101 number.

I remind Parliament that I am the parliamentary liaison officer to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice.

As the cabinet secretary mentioned, the HMICS review resulted in 30 recommendations. Can the cabinet secretary tell us what improvements have been made in call handling as a direct result of those recommendations?

In the course of my statement, I referred to a number of areas in which improvements have been made and the work that is being taken forward by Police Scotland within the C3 division.

There has been an independent validation of the modelling programme that is in place for the stability and staffing of the service. There has also been the implementation of a new training strategy, a new dedicated quality assurance unit for police call handling, a new risk and vulnerability training package that is delivered to all service centre staff, and a new and enhanced performance framework that draws on a wider range of measures around call handling.

Further, there has been investment in ICT infrastructure, which will allow a new and enhanced single command and control and customer relations management system. There has also been the adoption of a new notable incidents process that ensures that information relating to calls from which lessons can be learned is captured.

Those are some of the actions that have been taken as a result of the recommendations of HMICS. I expect Police Scotland to build on the momentum that it has achieved over the past couple of years to ensure that it is continuing to refresh and improve the way in which call handling is done in the weeks and months ahead.

In its recommendations, HMICS recognises the need for

“further work to identify and reduce failure demand.”

It recommends a public contact strategy and a risk and vulnerability model. How will the cabinet secretary ensure not so much the appropriate use of the 101 number by the public, which he highlighted in his response to Maurice Corry, but public confidence in the 101 phone number, which my constituents too often feel is not responsive enough—in particular, when they are reporting antisocial behaviour? Such things may not be judged to be high risk, but they are disruptive for people and their communities.

As ever, when a member of the public contacts Police Scotland and is not satisfied with its response, there is, if the individual has concerns, a process for the matter to be escalated: the person can lodge a complaint with Police Scotland and the matter will be investigated and reported on. There is a well-established and robust process for considering concerns and issues that members of the public may have. I am sure that, at some point, all MSPs have received representations from constituents in situations in which we could refer them to that process.

I have referred to the fact that Police Scotland is considering introducing a new contact assessment model. That process will help to evaluate risk and vulnerability much more effectively, so that when the police receive calls, they can use the information that they receive to make a much clearer assessment of the situation. Training for that will start later this year and will roll into 2019, and its benefits are expected to start to come into focus later in 2019 and into 2020.

The public contact strategy that Police Scotland intends to pursue relates to the point that I made to Maurice Corry about how the public can engage with Police Scotland, as it provides wider opportunities for people to engage and report matters. The consultation on that will start later this year and will involve a wide range of stakeholders, including members of the public, who will have an opportunity to shape how engagement should be done in the future.

The Police Service is very much about engaging with the public and hearing their views on how it can improve the service. A combination of the processes and systems that are in place for when people are dissatisfied, alongside the additional work that the service is planning, will help us to address the types of concerns that Claire Baker has highlighted regarding her constituents.

I thank the cabinet secretary for early sight of his statement. Like other members, I commend much of the positive work that is taking place, including the work that has been highlighted by HMICS, including the

“training ... introduced to service advisors on the assessment of risk and vulnerability.”

However, HMICS goes on to say that it

“is unable to identify any tangible impact on the priority grading and response to incidents which could be attributed to the revised approach.”

That is picked up in recommendation 6, on developing

“a risk and vulnerability model”.

Will the cabinet secretary ensure that that work is prioritised—not least, because of the well-documented concerns about the vulnerable persons database?

John Finnie has raised an important point. Some of what I mentioned in response to Claire Baker will help to address some of the issues of concern relating to that recommendation.

As John Finnie will now be aware, as a result of the eight recommendations that have been made by HMICS in its latest report, much of that work sits within the body of work that Police Scotland is pursuing as part of its wider reform programme and within the three-year implementation plan, which it took to the SPA board fairly recently. The work to which he has referred continues to be a high priority, and the report acknowledges that that is the case for the executive team in Police Scotland. When I instructed the report, it was to ensure that we would drive forward improvement in how police call handling and police contact were being managed. The unannounced inspections and visits to the contact centres that I asked HMICS to undertake were aimed at continuing to provide that wider assurance.

I note the combination of that work and the eight recommendations on which Police Scotland will now produce an action plan for implementation. A number of them are already being addressed, and work is being taken forward.

I believe that Police Scotland recognises that the work is a key priority, that it will continue to drive it forward, and that it will fit in with some of the work on the national database plan, which is already at an advanced stage. Part of that is based in Inverness and part is based in Govan. It will provide support to operational staff who require database inquiries during the course of operations. I expect that that work will probably be completed in the autumn of this year, once the measures have been fully implemented both at the base in Inverness and in Govan.

Will the cabinet secretary provide more information on what will be done to ensure that call handling continues to improve, in order to maintain high levels of public confidence?

A key part of the way in which I expect Police Scotland and, I have no doubt, the SPA will want to continue to monitor how Police Scotland carries out call handling and its performance will be through the quarterly update reports that will be provided to the SPA. Alongside that, HMICS will continue to look at how call handling is being managed and how it performs as the service goes forward, which will fit in with the wider reform agenda.

As Rona Mackay will also recognise, it is important that Police Scotland creates a culture in the organisation that drives the quality of the service that it delivers to the public. An issue that has been addressed much more effectively by the changes that have been introduced into the C3 division is the quality assurance system that is now in place—the training packages that it now has and the fact that it now has external audits that are provided as part of its national accreditation, all of which provide checks and balances in how the service operates and the quality of the service that it provides to the public. In that sense, the public can have greater assurance that we have much greater and more robust oversight of how Police Scotland delivers services through its C3 division, and of how the public responds to those services when they contact Police Scotland.

I thank the cabinet secretary for early sight of the statement, and I pay tribute to the work that has been done by Derek Penman. I thank Chief Superintendent Newbigging and colleagues at the C3 division for hosting my visit earlier this year, and for the work whose worth is clearly borne out in this HMICS report.

As part of the process of learning, will the cabinet secretary now acknowledge the part that has been played in the initial creation of problems in call handling by the rushed centralisation of policing by this Government?

Does the cabinet secretary accept that there is growing public disquiet that, three years on from the fatal crash on the M9, we are still no nearer to knowing the time frame for a fatal accident inquiry into that tragic incident?

It is clear from having directed the HMICS assurance review of Police Scotland that I recognise the need for Police Scotland to address a number of issues around how it has handled matters through its contact, command and control processes. There is no doubt in my mind that oversight of the transformation of contact, command and control in Police Scotland in 2014 and 2015 should have been more robust and effective. A lesson that can be learned from the process is about making sure that the oversight body—the SPA—has much greater assurance around that area of transformation work. That is why I welcome the new chair of the SPA’s consideration of the establishment of a committee that will be dedicated specifically to transformation and reform in Police Scotland, in order to provide much more effective oversight of the transformation and reform that is being taken forward by the service.

With regard to Liam McArthur’s latter point, he will be aware that decisions around the M9 incident are a matter for the Lord Advocate, because it is a live investigation. The matter has been reported on by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, and it has sought further reports on the complex matters around Police Scotland’s response to the incident.

The Lord Advocate has stated that a fatal accident inquiry will take place, but that inquiry can take place only once the Crown Office has come to a decision on whether there will be any criminal prosecutions relating to the incident. Both families who were affected by the tragedy are constituents and are known to me, and I am very aware of the distress and difficulties that the tragedy presents to the families of John Yuill and Lamara Bell. I assure Liam McArthur that the Crown Office is seeking to keep the families involved, and informed of progress, and is keeping them up to date as best it can as the investigation progresses. The ultimate decisions on the prosecution or when the fatal accident inquiry will take place are for the Lord Advocate.

What steps are being taken to increase and improve collaboration between the emergency services and other partners to strengthen the gazetteer global positioning system that is used by police call handlers?

The HMICS report considered the work that is being done by Police Scotland on its gazetteer—a matter that Lewis Macdonald has raised with me on a number of occasions—and the possibility of having a shared gazetteer across our three emergency services. We have a Scottish Fire and Rescue Service gazetteer, a Scottish Ambulance Service gazetteer and a Police Scotland gazetteer, all of which operate on slightly different systems.

To progress that matter, we have established the Scottish emergency services national collaboration group. One element of the group’s work is to consider a shared gazetteer although, as the report highlights, the Police Scotland gazetteer has been improved and is being appropriately maintained. Full implementation of the collaboration strategy and the group’s work on a single gazetteer for our emergency services will be supported and developed through the strategy.

However, I recognise that there are significant technical complications with moving to a single gazetteer and that we would need to do that in a planned fashion, if the collaboration group were to consider that that is the correct direction of travel and the right approach, and that we could ensure confidence in a single gazetteer being operated by all three of our emergency services.

As it is a final report, how will the cabinet secretary follow through on the eight new recommendations to ensure that they are delivered expeditiously?

Those are matters for the HMICS, which will discharge the recommendations only once they have been completed by Police Scotland. Review will be a matter for HMICS, which will continue to ensure that appropriate work is being done to complete the recommendations.

Can the cabinet secretary provide detail on the timescales for implementation of the new contact assessment model and the public contact strategy?

The public contact strategy consultation exercise will start later this year. The contact assessment model and the training for it will be introduced later this year and into 2019, with the expectation that its full benefits will be realised towards the end of 2019 and into 2020. Work on planning for the contact assessment model and the public contact strategy is already being done by Police Scotland; they will start to be taken forward later this year.