Reviews of Police Scotland Standing Firearms Authority Announced

14th August 2014

Two of the bodies responsible for oversight of policing in Scotland are today announcing a complementary programme of review and inquiry into the decision of Police Scotland to give a small number of firearms officers a standing authority to carry firearms.

HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) is today publishing the full terms of reference for its planned assurance review to independently assess the current practices for the issue and carriage of firearms by armed response vehicle (ARV) crews under the standing authority. It aims to provide assurance that Police Scotland's approach is compliant with guidance, procedures and recognised best practice. It will also benchmark the Police Scotland approach against a range of other UK police forces.

Following discussions with the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), the inspectorate has agreed to broaden the terms of reference of this assurance review to include consideration of how armed response officers operating under the standing authority are deployed on regular patrols and tasks, and the extent to which wider community impact has been incorporated into Police Scotland's decision-making process.

In parallel, the SPA has today announced that it is establishing a scrutiny inquiry to consider the public impact of Police Scotland's decision around firearms deployment. The scrutiny inquiry team will be chaired by SPA member Iain Whyte.

This inquiry will be informed by the findings of the HMICS assurance review, and will separately take a lead in assessing:

what the level and nature of public concerns are over the current Police Scotland policy in relation to the standing firearms authority;
how effectively Police Scotland are engaging with the public and considering the impact on communities in implementing their approach;
how Police Scotland can best address any public concerns and provide necessary reassurance to communities, and;
what, if any, lessons might be learned around how operational decisions with wider strategic or community impact are communicated to national and local oversight bodies and other key interests.

This initial phase of SPA work will include a number of public evidence sessions to allow members to hear directly from interested parties about their views and concerns.

The HMICS assurance review will be conducted independently from the SPA Scrutiny Inquiry, although its report will be published and provided to the SPA to allow for consideration at its public meeting on 29 October, alongside the SPA's consideration of the outcome of Police Scotland’s next quarterly review of the standing firearms authority (due to take place during September). A copy of the HMICS report will also be given to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, the Chief Constable, and laid before the Scottish Parliament.

The SPA inquiry will then draw together both its own evidence and that of the HMICS assurance review, and report with overall findings and recommendations to the full Authority at its public meeting on 17 December.

Derek Penman, HM Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland, said:"This review provides an opportunity for HMICS to make an objective professional assessment on whether the operational decision-making by Police Scotland on the standing authority for firearms has followed the relevant guidance, and that any conclusion is supported by the prevailing threat, risk, and available intelligence. This assurance role was requested by Police Scotland, but this will be an independent review with the remit and scope that we have assessed is necessary to fulfil our objective to add value and strengthen public confidence in policing.

"Engagement with the SPA has informed the scope of our work, and I am confident that our review will support the SPA in its wider scrutiny of armed policing. I believe this is a positive example of how different parts of the governance and scrutiny landscape in Scottish policing can work together in a complementary way with Police Scotland to improve outcomes for the public."

Iain Whyte, chair of the SPA scrutiny inquiry, said:"SPA has acknowledged that the issue of armed policing is a contentious one, and that we would keep this issue under review. One of the principles of good governance is that the public voice is appropriately heard within decision-making. Questions and views continue to be raised about the issue and we have concluded that an inquiry provides an opportunity for us to assess the level and nature of those concerns. That is an area where our initial phase of inquiry will focus.

"We also acknowledge that this is a specialist and technical area of policing. Our discussions with HMICS have identified a common set of operational issues that are worthy of review, and we feel they are ideally placed to provide us with the technical assessment of current policy and practice. Bringing together that public and professional evidence, and drawing findings and recommendations from them in a balanced and measured way, will be the ultimate objective of our inquiry."