HMICS Scrutiny plan 2025-28

These are short, sharp reviews, designed to minimise the impact on the area of inspection. These reviews provide assurance, identify issues and make recommendations for improvement. Where significant issues are identified, these reviews may lead to more directed scrutiny activity in the future. Our planned strategic reviews for 2025-28 are as follows:

Commonwealth Games 2026

In 2024, it was announced that Glasgow would host the 2026 Commonwealth Games. Full details of the scale of the event have yet to be announced (at the time of publication), but this is a global sporting event and will require significant planning and preparation from a policing perspective. Police Scotland has a strong track record in supporting the safe and successful delivery of such events, and we will undertake a rapid strategic review of planning for the policing of these Games.

This review will assess the:

• level of preparedness;
• governance arrangements; and
• resource planning,

both for the event itself and for business-as-usual policing of Scotland during the Games. We will liaise with Police Scotland Internal Audit, who will be undertaking a separate review of the planned finance, resource and operational controls of the Games.