"It will inevitably take some time to change the perception that the total incidence of crime is an accurate measure of police performance but it is important to change this commonly held belief"
Foreword
A key responsibility of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary is to report on the state and efficiency of policing in Scotland. In fulfilling that role it carries out inspections of police forces and the other policing organisations, engages in thematic inspections which examine the whole service on more focused areas of work, and works with other inspection agencies on joint scrutiny of services. The Annual Report provides an opportunity for some broader comment and in addition to reporting on the past year also allows consideration of developing and future issues. This report is based broadly on the period 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006 but has not been constrained to these parameters where it was felt appropriate to reflect a more up to date position.
Overview
The year was another challenging one for the police service in Scotland. In July 2005 the G8 World Leaders summit took place at Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire. Security arrangements and the policing of demonstrations across Scotland presented an unprecedented operational challenge to policing. HMIC is pleased to add its congratulations to the service for the manner in which it met these responsibilities. Though the venue was within the Tayside Police area and that force led the preparatory planning the event tested policing in several areas of Scotland. The operation was a truly co-ordinated effort involving police staff from across the whole of the United Kingdom.
The events in London on 7th July 2005, while the summit was underway, underlined the continuing threat presented by terrorists and domestic extremists. HMIC notes the steps taken by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland ( ACPOS) to strengthen its arrangements for meeting this threat. ACPOS plays its full part in the United Kingdom counter terrorism arrangements and Scotland supports a regional intelligence cell within the UK structure. These arrangements have been enhanced and an officer of Assistant Chief Constable rank now has a full time liaison and co-ordination role. The services of the small but necessarily growing regional intelligence cell are available to all forces. HMIC has recently inspected the counter terrorism arrangements in Scotland and the resulting report, which has a limited circulation due to its content, contains a number of recommendations designed to strengthen further the preventative and response capability of the service.
In 2005 HMIC (E & W) published a report addressing the issue of protective services in England and Wales. Protective services are defined as major crime, serious organised and cross border crime, counter terrorism and extremism, civil contingencies, critical incidents, public order and strategic roads policing. This report raised very important questions about the capability and capacity of the service to respond to critical incidents. ACPOS recognised that these issues were equally relevant in Scotland and embarked on work to examine the position here. Under the direction of the current president of ACPOS five work streams are progressing to consider how the service in Scotland is equipped to deal with serious and organised crime, major crime investigation, counter terrorism, firearms and public order. HMIC endorses the priority being given to this matter.
It is also becoming clearer that there may be some aspects of policing which local communities are more concerned about than others - i.e. volume crime, visible disorder and responsiveness to requests for assistance. It follows that these matters ought to be addressed locally by local officers. Conversely there are other aspects of policing - no less important but of less local nature - which may in the future be delivered in different ways: whether by inter-force collaboration, lead forces, or some other form of national capacity. These include but need not be limited to the types of protective services currently being considered by ACPOS.
HMIC has also been involved in an advisory capacity on the programme board responsible for developing arrangements for the Scottish Police Services Authority ( SPSA), which will come into being on 1st April 2007. Creation of the SPSA was facilitated by the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2006.
The Act also establishes an Independent Police Complaints Commissioner in Scotland. This new body will relieve HMIC of its responsibility to respond to those who remain dissatisfied with the manner in which a non-criminal complaint against the police has been handled and will provide a further degree of independence in this process. However HMIC will continue to take a general interest in these matters as it engages in the inspection process.
As HMIC has previously observed, the incidence of crime in its totality is not a measure of police performance. Certainly there are some aspects of crime (such as some forms of repeat victimisation, possession of weapons or drink driving) that can be influenced by police activity but the majority of high volume crime is also influenced by such things as retail practices and car security. HMIC's work in promoting performance management in the service has encouraged forces to focus on more meaningful performance indicators such as clear up rates and repeat victimisation rates, and to promote the use of some recorded crime rates as performance indicators for community planning partnerships.
It will inevitably take some time to change the perception that the total incidence of crime is an accurate measure of police performance. But it is important to change this commonly held belief so that the police, the public they serve, and the bodies who assess policing can focus on the realities of policing: public reassurance, investigating crime; helping victims and those at risk of harm; and supporting the criminal justice system.
This point made, HMIC is pleased to note that the crime figures recently released by the Executive reveal that the total number of crimes recorded in Scotland in 2005/06 fell by 5%. Whilst the clear up rates showed little change, an improvement has been recorded in terms of vandalism where the detection rate is up by one and one half percentage points to 23%.
During 2005, responding to concerns about violent crime, Strathclyde Police created a Violence Reduction Unit. There was a clear understanding amongst those involved that the issue was not one for the police alone and there was a welcome engagement with partner agencies. The project has benefited from some very energetic leadership and has now been adopted and supported by the Scottish Executive as a national project. This is a good example of a local initiative being developed into an arrangement which has the potential to benefit all the communities in Scotland.
The Unit is now running a year long Safer Scotland Anti Violence campaign focusing on knife crime, alcohol and gang membership. It is working with all 32 local authority areas to sharpen the focus on violent crime reduction, focusing on problem solving, violence and dealing with violent offenders. A working group is developing a national action plan for publication later this year to tackle violence in Scotland and HMIC will watch with interest the further development in this important initiative.
A recent announcement by the previous Lord Advocate complements this activity. He issued clear guidelines that, following the national knife amnesty, anyone caught carrying a knife, whether they have used it in a separate offence or not, will be arrested and kept in custody pending their appearance in court. When that person appears in court the Procurator Fiscal will oppose bail if the accused has one or more previous convictions involving possession or use of a knife. Bail will also be opposed if an accused has a previous conviction for an offence of violence which resulted in a custodial sentence. When prosecutors are deciding on the appropriate court for proceedings, and an accused has a previous conviction for a similar offence, there will be a presumption in favour of prosecution before a judge and jury.
Notwithstanding the recent and welcome fall in non-sexual crimes of violence (-7%) announcements on the prohibition on the sale of swords and restrictions on the sale of non-domestic knives set a clear tone that violence, especially involving the use of weapons, will not be tolerated in Scotland.
During the year the number of police officers continued to rise. At 31 March 2006, the police service in Scotland had 16,368 police officers of which 527 had elected to work on a part time basis. The service also had 7,901 support staff, and some 1,344 special constables as well as 120 police cadets.
Supporting communities and the police the Executive has provided funding for some 550 community wardens and the evidence to date suggests that warden schemes can assist in reducing crime and the fear of crime. Wardens are not a replacement for the police and do not have police powers but they are an additional local resource offering a new approach to familiar problems. HMIC is encouraged by the outcomes achieved by community wardens and views their role as an important new step in promoting community safety and development.
In its work with the police service in Scotland, HMIC noted the ongoing drive for continuous improvement. The perspective of the Inspectorate allows a unique insight into policing developments and HMIC believes there is a significant contribution to improvement to be made through inspection. During the year the inspection process has produced a range of recommendations, all of which have the overall objective of providing enhanced service to communities in Scotland. HMIC considers that this combination of ongoing external inspection and internal self-assessment makes an important contribution to development of the service.
Diversity
Race Relations legislation creates a statutory duty for the police service to set in place Race Equality Schemes. Such schemes are designed to inform local communities, police officers and support staff how each force intends to promote equality and diversity in all aspects of the organisation. In setting out such a scheme each force or policing agency is presented with a valuable opportunity to share some of the excellent work already undertaken to assist the provision of a fair, culturally sensitive and accessible police service. It also provides an opportunity to demonstrate a continued commitment to promote equal opportunities in employment so that the workforce of the police service in Scotland reflects the diversity of its communities.
HMIC notes that by December 2006, all public bodies across Scotland including the police will be expected to have in place satisfactory frameworks for the implementation of new public-sector duties relating to the elimination of any discrimination based on disability. Similar frameworks relating to gender discrimination will have to be in place by 6 April 2007 so that by the end of the next financial year, there will be three duties placing legal obligations on the police. These are the race equality duty ( RED), the disability equality duty ( DED) and the gender equality duty ( GED).
At the same time the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 come into force on 1 October 2006. These apply to employment and vocational training and prohibit unjustified direct and indirect age discrimination and all harassment and victimisation on grounds of age.
HMIC is confident that the police service in Scotland has responded to the challenges in this area and notes that the Commission for Racial Equality, in its report 'Independent Review Police and Public Relations in Scotland', commended the police service in Scotland as being 'exemplars in public life' in respect of the commitment and outcomes achieved in equality and diversity. HMIC will continue to monitor progress in this important area as part of the primary and review inspection process.
Road Safety
The Scottish Executive strategy document 'Tomorrow's Roads - Safer for Everyone' sets out a range of measures intended to protect vulnerable road users, such as children, pedestrians and cyclists. It sets out the need for action on speeding, drink and drug driving and driver fatigue; road design and vehicle safety; driver training and testing; enforcement and penalties; and education and publicity. Government targets of a 40% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured and a 50% reduction in the number of children killed or seriously injured by 2010 have been achieved in Scotland by 2006. In the third area, a 10% reduction in the slight casualty rate, Scotland is on track to meet this target. HMIC is encouraged by the overall trend in road safety in Scotland. However the target figures have largely been achieved in urban areas and work is still necessary to address the significant problems associated with road accidents in more rural areas.
Bichard Report
The third progress report on the Bichard Inquiry recommendations was published in May this year. It commented that a great deal of progress had been made across the whole Bichard programme and that work in this area had been characterised by the close co-operation between departments and agencies involved to achieve the challenges set. HMIC is pleased to note that the documents record a strong commitment to improve the safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults.
Child Protection
The work of the Services for Children Unit based at Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education ( HMIe) continues to progress. HMIC has engaged at a strategic level and also supports the Unit by facilitating the secondment of two members of staff. Having carried out pilot inspections for child protection, and following primary legislation to empower the joint inspection process, the first round of child protection inspections has now commenced and will take place within nine council areas. HMIC will take account of the outcomes of these inspection visits in its preparatory work for inspecting police forces. The liaison arrangements with HMIe are working well and HMIC is actively engaged in the development of processes for the wider inspection of childrens' services.
G8 Summit
The G8 World Leaders Summit took place at Gleneagles Hotel, Perthshire from 6th to 8th July 2005. The security arrangements presented an unprecedented operational challenge to policing in Scotland and HMIC adds its congratulations to the service for the manner in which it met these responsibilities. Gleneagles is within the Tayside Police area and that force led the preparatory planning. The event tested policing in several areas of the country and was a truly co-ordinated effort involving police staff from across the United Kingdom. Drawn from every force in the United Kingdom some 11,000 police officers were engaged in policing this event, which by any measure of assessment was a successful operation. HMIC notes that the police service in Scotland has captured the learning outcomes of managing and policing such an international event.
Performance Management
In September 2005 HMIC published a thematic report entitled 'Managing Improvement'. The inspection focused on performance management in the Scottish police service under the key headings of leadership, planning and priority setting, ownership and accountability review and meaningful data capture and analysis. The report made ten recommendations, dealing with the need for clearer mechanisms for priority setting at a national level, agreement on suitable performance indicators which accurately reflect the full scope of policing activity and the ability to collect and process timely, reliable performance data in a non-bureaucratic way. HMIC is encouraged by the excellent work being taken forward by ACPOS, the Scottish forces and the Scottish Executive and notes that a recent successful bid under the efficient government scheme will provide resources to put in place a common performance management platform for use by the service, the Scottish Executive and the other relevant agencies.
Antisocial Behaviour
HMIC has been examining how forces are tackling antisocial behaviour in the course of force inspections. In response to the Antisocial Behaviour (Scotland) Act 2004, forces have been working with local authorities to develop local strategies and to meet the associated outcome agreements required by the Scottish Executive. In tandem with this development work the central and local funding which has been allocated to deal with antisocial behaviour has been used in a wide variety of ways to create additional resources to tackle problems in communities. The various approaches used have attracted considerable media attention with the focus on those which are making use of the new powers under the Act. HMIC will retain an interest in this area in future inspections and will look to identify outcomes from the various approaches being taken.
Call Handling
HMIC is aware that the police service in Scotland understands the importance of the quality of the first point of contact when dealing with members of the public. To address one aspect of that all forces have recently developed new call handling arrangements resulting in the introduction of contact centres.
HMIC in Scotland collaborated with colleagues in HMIC England and Wales in the production of the report 'First Contact - A Thematic Inspection of Police Contact Management', which made 21 recommendations and 17 suggestions. Whilst these were aimed at forces in England and Wales the report is a very useful reference point for Scottish forces. HMIC will use the outcome of that work to inform the inspection process. The thrust of the recommendations related to matters such as minimum access requirements in terms of telephony, internet, and other electronic media, the promulgation of good practice, the development of a contact management strategy, business continuity, human resources - training and strategy, and performance monitoring and management.
The Scottish Executive has also commissioned Audit Scotland to undertake a study of the public experience of calling the police and the service received in response to that call. That study is now underway and HMIC awaits with interest the findings of this scrutiny.
ACPOS - Business Areas
HMIC notes that ACPOS has created two new business areas in its structure - Criminal Justice and Performance Management. This change reflects the evolving nature of policing and the particular importance of the issues to be addressed by each of these new areas. The work of ACPOS is discussed in more detail later in the report.
General
This has been a particularly busy period for inspection activity. During the year HMIC carried out primary inspections of both Fife and Northern Constabularies. Review inspections were conducted in Grampian Police, Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary, Central Scotland Police, Tayside Police and the Scottish Police College. HMIC also participated in the joint thematic inspection with HMIC England and Wales referred to earlier and entitled 'First Contact' which examined the call handling process throughout the UK police service.
A thematic inspection of the Scottish Crime Recording Standard was completed and a report entitled 'Meeting the Standard' was published in October 2005. As indicated earlier, a thematic inspection on performance management in the Scottish police service was also carried out and the report, entitled 'Managing Improvement', was published in September 2005. HMIC in conjunction with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service carried out a thematic inspection of the case management process and produced a report entitled 'Case Study'. This was published in August 2006.
Working with HMIe, the joint scrutiny of Children's Services will continue and HMIC will maintain its interest and commitment to this important work. Additional work has been completed with our colleagues HMIC England and Wales in respect of HM Revenue and Customs and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary. HMIC has also completed joint work with the Social Work Inspection Agency and work is ongoing in conjunction with the Accounts Commission to discharge a joint responsibility in terms of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 2003 for the inspection of Best Value in police authorities in Scotland.
In addition to its core work of primary inspections and thematic inspections from time to time HMIC is engaged in inspectorial work to examine concerns arising from specific cases. Such a situation arose in 2005 when the Social Work Inspectorate Agency and HMIC were tasked by the Justice Minister to review the arrangements for managing Colyn Evans, a young offender who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a 16 year old girl, Karen Dewar. Evans resided in Fife and the examination focused on Fife Council and Fife Constabulary. The resultant report identified 20 issues for further action by a range of stakeholders and the inspection bodies will monitor the action taken to address them. Some of the issues identified concerned the development of frameworks and strategies for dealing with adolescent sex offenders and HMIC has participated in the work of a High Risk Offenders Group, under the overarching remit of the Youth Justice Improvement Group which was established by the Scottish Executive.
Last year's annual report indicated that HMIC would examine and review its business and corporate planning infrastructure to ensure that it met the requirements expected of the organisation and the demands of the Scottish Police service. This work has been completed and a refreshed business plan with a risk register attached has been published, a copy of which can be found as an appendix to this report.
It is of note that since 2003 HMIC has made 217 recommendations to forces, the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Scottish Executive and other policing partners directly related to the improvement of policing in Scotland.
HMIC is pleased to note that the considerable evidence gathered by HMIC supporting these recommendations has either led to them being accepted and implemented or has resulted in further work by forces to meet the challenges set.
In conducting its work HMIC adheres to a philosophy of continuous improvement. There is always scope for improvement and to that end HMIC has made a series of recommendations over the year which seeks to enhance the delivery of policing in Scotland. In doing so, however, HMIC has found that police forces and organisations in Scotland are generally in a good state of efficiency.
In 2006/07 the proposed programme of inspections includes primary inspections of Grampian Police, Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and the Scottish Police College. Review inspections of Strathclyde Police, Scottish Drugs Enforcement Agency ( SDEA) and Scottish Criminal Record Office ( SCRO) are also included in the published schedule. A thematic inspection on Intelligence and Information Sharing in the police community is underway at the time of writing and it is anticipated that the report, entitled, 'Common Knowledge', will be published in November 2006.
The past year has been a particularly demanding one for the police service in Scotland. The issues set out in this report highlight only a flavour of the many challenges encountered by and facing the police. HMIC is confident that in the year ahead the service will demonstrate the benefits of the many improvements currently in progress while continuing to change and adapt policing services for the benefit of the diverse communities in Scotland.
Acknowledgement
I would like to acknowledge the sterling work of the staff at HMIC and the help and co-operation of our partners throughout the year in providing information and facilitating the smooth progress of the inspection programme.
In particular I would wish to record my thanks and appreciation for the work carried out by Mr Kenneth McInnes QPMBSc who recently retired as Assistant Inspector of Constabulary. Mr McInnes has moved on to new responsibilities as the ACPOS Business Change Director and I wish him well in that endeavour. At the same time I would wish to welcome Mr Malcolm R Dickson MA, former Deputy Chief Constable of Lothian and Borders Police, as the new Assistant Inspector of Constabulary.
It is also an opportune time to welcome Mr Paddy Tomkins, currently the Chief Constable of Lothian and Borders Police who will take the post of HMCIC in March 2007. I am confident that he will continue to develop the important work of HMIC in Scotland.
Andrew G Brown
Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland