One of the ways in which the Commissioner seeks to raise standards is to issue guidance to policing bodies on handling complaints.
The Commissioner's statutory guidance was originally issued in 2011. Without being prescriptive, it set out minimum standards for the way that policing bodies should respond to complaints from the public. In April 2013 the statutory guidance was updated in light of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012.
In March 2021, the PIRC published comprehensive new statutory guidance for handling complaints about the police in Scotland, bringing greater transparency, accountability and an increased focus on improvement.
Revised statutory guidance for handling complaints about the police in Scotland has been issued by the PIRC in June 2022.
The central theme of the revised guidance is to remind all policing bodies, operating in Scotland, of their general (and Scotland specific) Public Sector Equality duties, in terms of section 149 of the Equality Act 2010.