HMICS Corporate plan 2025-28

I am delighted to present the HMICS corporate plan for the period 2025-28. As the Chief Inspector of Constabulary since April 2022, I have sought to apply the same ethos of continuous improvement and best value within HMICS that I expect from the areas of policing in which we undertake our scrutiny activity. Over the past three years, HMICS has continued to evolve – in both organisational structure and methodologies employed – to ensure we remain at the forefront of supporting improvement across policing.

Notwithstanding our modest size and scale, we have always aimed to maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of our resources to achieve the greatest impact. During the period covered by our last Corporate Plan, we have undertaken a range of activities (not least, an organisational restructure) to create a more robust and flexible team – both in terms of scrutiny activity and the supporting activity that contributes to the publication of our reports, and monitoring and management of the recommendations made. This enhanced resource is now being utilised by partner scrutiny bodies to reduce costs in the design and publication of reports.

This enhanced capacity and capability means we can project with greater accuracy the level of scrutiny activities that can be undertaken in the next three-year period. This will take the form of a three-year scrutiny plan (a statutory requirement), which will be published separately to this corporate plan. Both can be accessed via our website at www.hmics.scot.

In our approach to scrutiny we adhere, not just to our own values, but also to those principles of external scrutiny set out in the Crerar review, and to the priorities set out in the Christie report on the development of effective and sustainable public services. I firmly believe that the complexity of those challenges faced by policing is mirrored in other public services, and that any increased collaboration between such services would benefit from joint scrutiny activity. Over the past three-year period, HMICS has worked in partnership with various scrutiny bodies, and I am committed to developing this approach further.

We will continue to adapt our inspection activity, identifying the most appropriate type of review (as outlined below) for the policing area under scrutiny. This is underpinned by our established methodology, where each phase and stage of inspection is subject to a rigorous quality assurance process, ensuring that our published reports and recommendations (where appropriate) are supported by a robust evidence base.

Any improvement within HMICS relies on a positive workplace culture and I will always ensure that our team is supported and developed in line with personal and organisational needs, so that we can continue to deliver scrutiny activity of the highest quality, helping to improve policing across Scotland.

Craig Naylor
His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary
March 2025