Our business

Where relevant, we publish our responses to Freedom of Information requests under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA).

This response addressed the following query:

• “Please can you send me the guidelines that you use to measure police complaints performance and explain to me the powers that you have, if any?”

Under Section 25(1) of FOISA we do not have to provide information which is already reasonably accessible. Links to the requested information are below. If you have any difficult accessing this page please let me know and we will supply the information to you.

• Guidelines that you use to measure police complaints performance

The guidelines used to measure police complaints performance can be found in our “Statutory Guidance on the handling of complaints about the police in Scotland”. This is available on the PIRC website at https://pirc.scot/publication/statutory-guidance-october-2022.

• The powers that you have

The statutory powers conveyed onto the PIRC are set out in:

• Section 33 to 41 of the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2006
  https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2006/10/part/1/chapter/2; and
• Chapter 10 of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012
  https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2012/8/part/1/chapter/10.