Status of all recommendations

Police Scotland should work with partners to ensure that clear and co-ordinated arrangements are in place to conduct return discussions across divisions. These should align effectively with safe and well checks, and all relevant information gathered from such discussions should be shared between partners.

Police Scotland should routinely evaluate the quality of its missing persons operations to pinpoint areas for improvement, using that knowledge to drive improvement, reduce demand and improve outcomes.

Police Scotland should review compliance with policy relating to the delay of release following a disposal decision being made and ensure that staff adhere to this.

Police Scotland should ensure that custody staff have a clear understanding of what response is required for each of the defined observation levels and that these are applied consistently.

Police Scotland should demonstrate flexibility in the deployment of resources across the entire organisation to reduce the impact of low resourcing levels on the wellbeing of frontline officers and staff.