Chamber and committees

I am pleased to confirm the publication today of the Scottish Government’s fourth thematic report on implementation progress following Dame Elish Angiolini’s Final Report. This not only includes a narrative, context and additional information about key recommendations but, importantly, also has a tracker showing what progress has been made.

This shows that 55 of the non-legislative recommendations are now complete leaving only 16 non-legislative recommendations still in progress and one to be kept under review.

Through their leadership and commitment, policing partners have delivered major business transformation and service redesign to improve how complaints are handled, bringing greater transparency, fairness and accessibility to systems, policies and processes.

Building on this and as announced in the Programme for Government, the Scottish Government will introduce a Police Complaints and Misconduct Handling Bill in this Parliamentary year to further strengthen public confidence in policing in Scotland.

I commend Police Scotland, the Scottish Police Authority, the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland for their dedication to this important work.

The report can be accessed here: http://www.gov.scot/ISBN/9781805252610

We welcome the one-year update report from the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR) on prison deaths and FAI outcomes in Scotland which will inform work across organisations to prevent deaths in custody and in relation to FAIs.

We are committed to making improvements to the response to, and experiences of, families impacted by a death in custody and to that end we have welcomed the recommendations from the Independent Review of the response to Deaths in Prison Custody and we are working with partners to implement these.

A dedicated Crown Office team was piloted from November 2021 under the umbrella of the Health and Safety Investigation unit to consolidate how we investigate deaths in custody and to make improvements to these processes. During the pilot period, the unit investigated deaths in custody with common underlying themes, namely drug deaths and deaths by suicide. Following a successful Pilot, the Custody Death Unit was established in August 2022 with a remit to investigate all deaths in legal custody occurring in Scotland after that date. It is anticipated that this holistic approach will streamline the approach to investigations resulting overall in a reduction to the journey time of cases whilst still ensuring a robust and through investigation. In addition, it is anticipated that the streamlined approach will allow for accelerated processes for particular categories of death and greater scope for conjoining FAIs which will further reduce the time taken to conclude these investigations.

Preventing suicide and supporting people who self-harm are key areas of focus for the Scottish Prison Service in developing its Health and Wellbeing Strategy. The Prevention of Suicide in Prison Strategy aims to care for those ‘at risk’ of suicide by providing a person-centred care pathway based on an individual’s needs, strengths and assets and by promoting a supportive environment where people in SPS custody can ask for help.

In September, the Scottish Government and COSLA published Creating Hope Together - a new long term suicide prevention strategy for Scotland. Our vision is to reduce the number of suicide deaths in Scotland, whilst tackling the inequalities which contribute to suicide. The strategy sets out a new approach to reducing suicide in Scotland, targeting key settings where suicide risk is higher, such as prisons. We are now implementing the strategy and are working with partners across the criminal justice system.

In terms of the findings relating to Fatal Accident Inquiries, the Lord Advocate is constitutionally responsible for the investigation of sudden, unexpected and suspicious deaths in Scotland. These functions are exercised independently of government. Whether or not a recommendation is made at the end of an inquiry is a matter for the presiding Sheriff who has listened to all the evidence.

We keep matters in relation to FAIs and deaths in custody under review in consultation with the Crown Office and continually consider and evaluate whether there are ways in which the system can be improved further.

COPFS is committed to reducing the timescale for commencing FAIs, including those arising from deaths in custody, whilst ensuring that the circumstances surrounding each death are thoroughly investigated. COPFS has introduced a number of measures since the implementation of the Inquiries into Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc. (Scotland) Act 2016 to reduce the average time taken to complete FAIs.

Between 14 January 2022 and 17 February 2022 the role of Chair of the Board Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) was publicly advertised. Two candidates applied but were not successful.

Following the unsuccessful public recruitment exercise, a recruitment agency was engaged via the framework agreement with the Crown Commercial Service. Three potential candidates were invited for formal interview. The formal interviews tested strong leadership, change management, knowledge of the Public Sector, governance, analysis and decision making as well as communication, networking, influencing, mediation and conflict resolution skills. A recommendation was made to Ministers based on the ranking at formal interview and a formal offer of appointment was made to the highest ranking candidate assessed against the stated criteria.

The issue of body-worn cameras is a policy and operational decision for Police Scotland, acting under the oversight of the Scottish Police Authority.

Police Scotland have advised they have developed an initial business case for Body Worn Video which has been considered and approved by the SPA Resources Committee. Police Scotland will undertake a full procurement exercise in 2023 which will provide more clarity on costs – both upfront purchase costs and ongoing costs.

The Scottish Government would expect Police Scotland to achieve best value through all its procurement activity.

The Scottish Government welcomes initiatives being undertaken by Police Scotland to support its workforce through the “Your Wellbeing Matters” programme which covers psychological, physical, social and financial wellbeing.

The Scottish Government does not collect information on staff absences due to mental health reasons. Delivery of call handling services and associated staffing issues are a matter for the Chief Constable under the oversight of the SPA.

The Scottish Government is grateful to Police Scotland’s call handlers for their continued hard work to ensure that calls to the service are answered as quickly and as safely as possible.

In its 2021 briefing note, His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, (HMICS) noted significant progress in Police Scotland’s call handling processes and a commitment to pursue continuous improvement. Furthermore, this year’s HMICS assurance review on the service’s Contact Assessment Model (CAM) highlighted a number of successes in how calls are now triaged by handlers.

The Scottish Government does not collect data on Police Scotland 999 or 101 calls. Delivery of these services is a matter for the Chief Constable under the oversight of the SPA.

Police Scotland publish monthly reports on call handling which are available at: https://www.scotland.police.uk/about-us/what-we-do/how-we-are-performing/.

The calculated annual average cost per prisoner place within SPS is published in the SPS Annual Report and Accounts each year. For 2021-22 the annual average cost per prisoner place, which excludes capital charges, exceptional payments and the cost of the Court Custody and Prisoner Escort contracts, was £41,858 (2020-21 £39,350).

SPS do not currently calculate the average cost per prisoner place at an individual establishment level therefore this level of detail is not available.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-12583 on 12 December 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government remains committed to working closely with Police Scotland to support delivery of the Joint Policing Strategy. The findings of the HMICS review of Strategic Workforce Planning, published this year showed that the focus needs to rightly be on capacity and capability.

The data requested are not held centrally by the Scottish Government as the recruitment and deployment of police officers and staff in Scotland is a matter for the Chief Constable under the oversight of the SPA. It is important that he has the flexibility to develop his workforce in a way that responds to the challenges he faces by ensuring the right workforce mix.