Current status: Answered by Angela Constance on 29 July 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is aware of any police officers, prisoner officers or other public officials having been charged with misconduct in public office, or related common law offences, in the last five years.
The common law offence of misconduct in public office does not operate in Scotland. However, there is a comparable common law offence in Scots law of wilful neglect of duty.
Separate to common law, there are also some specific offences relating to the police in terms of failure to perform duty. These are contained in section 22 of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 and are the offence of being absent from duty and the offence of neglecting or violating a constable’s duty.
The following table provides data from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) on the number of charges related to these offences. However, this data cannot be disaggregated by the occupation or role of the accused person (though this is otherwise identified for the specific charge of Constable of Police Service of Scotland did neglect or violate duty).
Table: Number of Charges reported to COPFS related to culpable neglect of duty.
Charge | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 |
Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 S22(3) - Constable of the Police Service of Scotland did neglect or violate duty | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
Wilful neglect | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Police wilfully neglect duty (Common Law) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Total | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
In addition to the above, the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) has confirmed that 62 employees have been subject to a Gross Misconduct disciplinary procedure as a consequence of Police Scotland charges since January 2021. SPS is unable to confirm whether the related police charges fall under common law or statutory criminal offences.