Annual Report 2011-12

The bringing into force of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 continues to have an impact on the Inspectorate. Similarly the Crerar Review continues to play a prominent role in the development of the work programme etc.

In accordance with the principles of the Act the Inspectorate continues to take a 'user' perspective when producing reports including contact with victims in the production of the report on victims.

Opportunities are taken, wherever possible, to co-operate with other Inspectorates.

On the efficiency, effectiveness and economy front the work programme continues to be risk based and proportionate. The move away from Area reports has been accelerated towards more targeted thematic reports and effectiveness was enhanced by continuing to do joint work with other bodies.

IT, HR and other services continue to be supplied by the Scottish Government.

The creation of a single police force for Scotland in 2013 led to a renewed statutory basis for Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (Scotland) with new functions related to the creation of the single police service and the Authority.

As indicated in the Foreword the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in-house case review was suspended during the year pending a new system compatible with the Federation structure. This leaves the Inspectorate as the sole monitoring system on the quality of the work. Some of our findings in our most recently published work were also mirrored in the internal case review and it is important from the point of view of self improvement that a new system is up and running as soon as possible. We will work closely with Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service staff to advise on and monitor such new system. Compliance with the previous system we found to be very patchy.