Commenting on the recent reporting about Police Scotland, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland, Derek Penman said:

"I agree with the view of the Scottish Police Federation that there is no crisis in policing and believe that Police Scotland is well-served by the many senior officers, team leaders and support staff managers who provide essential day-to-day leadership across the country. Our ongoing scrutiny of Police Scotland has consistently shown that police officers and police staff at all levels remain committed to delivering policing to our communities.

"It is important that the public can have confidence in the current leadership of Police Scotland and I welcome the proposals brought forward yesterday by Deputy Chief Constable Iain Livingstone to strengthen his executive team with an additional two temporary Assistant Chief Constables. This will strengthen operational resilience and importantly, provide additional capacity within the team to progress the transformation needed to deliver sustainable policing.

"I welcome the assurances that the Deputy Chief Constable has given to the Scottish Police Authority around the leadership of armed policing. HMICS provides independent scrutiny over armed policing and the public should have confidence that Police Scotland can provide an effective firearms response.

"It is also important for public confidence in policing that all complaints against senior officers are robustly and independently investigated. Legal processes must be able to progress in a manner that is proportionate and protects all parties from unwarranted media speculation.

"HMICS will maintain our scrutiny over Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority and we will continue to report publicly on what we find."