Status of all recommendations

COPFS and Police Scotland must develop and embed digital approaches to delivering citations to ensure the number of personal citations officers of Police Scotland require to serve on witnesses is kept to a minimum.

Strategic direction - 

2026 provides a timely opportunity to realign the strategic planning landscape and clarify priorities. Policing should:

• In the next 12 months clearly set out the overall direction and priorities for policing in the Strategic Police Plan. This plan must be outcome-focused, specific and measurable – supported by defined success measures and baseline data (see Recommendation 2) – and based on clear prioritisation shaped by stakeholder engagement.

• In the next 18 months review the status of supporting (‘enabling’) strategies and plans and refresh those still relevant to ensure they fit well together to deliver the Strategic Police Plan.

Performance management and reporting -

Policing should improve performance management and reporting to clearly demonstrate progress towards the achievement of strategic outcomes (set out in the Strategic Police Plan, 2030 Vision and Forensic Strategy 2025-2030). In the next 12 months policing should establish:

• strategic success measures which are outcome-focused with clear targets and timescales to track impact and pace of change

• cost and performance baselines against which progress of the next stage of reform can be monitored and reported. Over the course of these strategies policing should monitor and report progress against all strategic outcomes (identified in Recommendation 1) in a way which supports transparency and scrutiny and helps policing demonstrate continuous improvement.

Governance - 

In the next 12 months the SPA should review the governance arrangements to ensure the right information is discussed in the right committee, with a view to supporting more effective scrutiny and reducing duplication of discussions.