Custody inspection report - Forth Valley

1. Custody is delivered throughout Scotland by the Police Scotland Criminal Justice Services Division (CJSD). This division is one of several national divisions which sit alongside and support the thirteen local policing divisions. CJSD is led by a Chief Superintendent who reports to an Assistant Chief Constable and, in turn, to a Deputy Chief Constable. Custody is delivered in accordance with the custody standard operating procedure, which is updated and amended regularly to reflect changes in practice guidelines and expectations.

2. National custody throughput fell to a relatively low level due to the Covid-19 pandemic, however there has been a steady increase in recent years as indicated in the table below. Falkirk custody centre has also seen an increase in throughput over the past two fiscal years. The national trend reflects a 4% increase in throughput volume from 2022-23 to 2023-24, whereas there was a 16% increase in throughput over the same period at Falkirk. There is no clear causal factor for this.

Table 1 - National custody throughput

Table 2 - Custody centre cell capacity and throughput

3. Custody centres in Scotland are organised into clusters, each led by a Cluster Inspector. The Forth Valley division, encompassing the local authority areas of Falkirk, Stirling and Clackmannanshire has one custody centre, based at Falkirk Police Station. Falkirk police custody centre serves the sheriffdoms of Falkirk, Stirling and Alloa. There are no ancillary custody centres. Very few detainees are brought to Falkirk from other areas and almost all those arrested in Forth Valley division are processed at Falkirk. The occasional exceptions are those arrested in the far west of the divisional area, who are sometimes taken to Clydebank custody centre.

4. At the time of our inspection, all staff observed the CJSD 222b shift pattern. Each staff team at Falkirk custody centre was made up of two police sergeants, a criminal justice police custody and security officer (CJPCSO) team leader, two custody constables and four CJPCSO staff.

Independent custody visitors

5. Under the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) is required to make arrangements for independent custody visitors to monitor the welfare of people detained in police custody. Regular visits to custody centres are carried out by volunteer independent custody visitors from the local community. Independent Custody Visiting Scotland (ICVS) manages the process and coordinates volunteers. Any concerns identified by custody visitors are raised with custody staff during their visits and outcomes are recorded in custody records. ICVS is also a member of the UK’s NPM.

6. During our inspection, we reviewed the ICVS service book that is completed following each visit by the custody visitors. This reflected a pattern of recent and regular visits with no significant issues raised.