The Justice Sub-Committee on Policing is keen to hear from local people, communities and stakeholders about how the new national policing arrangements, which came into force on 1 April 2013, are affecting local policing in their areas.
The Sub-Committee also wishes to establish whether the main objectives of police reform relating to local policing, including protecting and improving local services and strengthening the connection between services and communities, are being met.
The Sub-Committee is particularly interested in receiving your views on the following issues:
- the impact of police reform on the police services you have in your area.
- whether local policing services have improved since 1 April, remained the same, or deteriorated in your area.
- whether you feel that local policing services have been designed to address the specific needs particular to your local area and if there have been any changes to approach since 1 April.
Background
The Justice Sub-Committee on Policing has been established to oversee the operation of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 as it relates to policing. The creation of the sub-committee meets a requirement set out in the 2012 Act for the Scottish Parliament to make arrangements for keeping under review and reporting on the operation of the Act. The Act replaced the eight territorial police forces in Scotland with one national force, the Police Service of Scotland, which is overseen by a Scottish Police Authority.
Sub-committee members have been selected from the Justice Committee, Local Government and Regeneration Committee and Equal Opportunities Committee to represent these committees’ interests in policing.
Your views
The Committee welcomes evidence from all interested parties and members of the public with an interest in matters relating to local policing. Your views will be circulated to members of the Committee and will help shape future evidence sessions on this issue.
How to submit your views
The call for written views opens on 4 November, and will close at 5.00 pm on Friday 10 January 2014..
Before making a submission, please read our policy on treatment of written evidence by subject and mandatory committees.
We welcome written views in English, Gaelic, Scots or any other language. Responses should be sent electronically in MS Word format to the following address:
[email protected]
You may also make written submissions to:
Justice Sub-Committee on Policing
Room T2.60
Scottish Parliament
EH99 1SP
Anyone wishing their evidence to be treated confidentially should contact the Sub-Committee clerking team at the email address or phone number below before submitting their evidence. It will then be for the Committee to decide whether or not to accept the submission on the basis that it will not be published (though it will be seen in full by the Committee). However, the Parliament is required to consider requests for information under freedom of information legislation and therefore cannot guarantee that the evidence will never be released.
Contact
Any queries about written submissions should be addressed in the first instance to the Sub-Committee clerking team at the above email address or (0131) 348 5220.
Further background on Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 as it relates to local policing
The Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 replaced the eight territorial police forces in Scotland with one national force, the Police Service of Scotland, which is overseen by a Scottish Police Authority. Two of the three main policy objectives of the Act relate to local policing:
- to protect and improve local services despite financial cuts, by stopping duplication of support services eight times over and not cutting front line services; and
- to strengthen the connection between services and communities, by creating a new formal relationship with each of the 32 local authorities, involving many more local councillors and better integrating with community planning partnerships.
Under the Act, the Chief Constable is responsible for designating a local commander for each local authority (although they may cover more than one local authority). The Chief Constable has appointed 14 local commanders to cover the 32 local authority areas. 32 local police plans have been developed and approved by the relevant local authority (as required under the Act) and, in addition, plans have been put in place to cover each of Scotland’s 353 multi-member wards, which are in place to respond to more locally identified policing needs. The Act is silent on how local authorities should make arrangements for their scrutiny of local policing and approval of local police plans. Local authorities have adopted four broad scrutiny models:
- scrutiny by the full council;
- an existing committee, such as a community safety committee, taking on the scrutiny function;
- informal groupings between councillors and stakeholders (where only the councillors can vote on a plan); and
- a broader partnership approach, such as building on a community safety partnership or community planning partnership.
The Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 places a duty on the Chief Constable to participate in community planning, and this duty is delegated to local commanders under the 2012 Act.