Complaint Handling Reviews

The complaints

The complaint in this case arose after an officer submitted a report to the Parole Board. We have reviewed the handling of a single complaint, namely that:

• An officer submitted a report to the English Parole Board, which was deliberately misleading and included information which was untrue. 

Police Scotland’s decision

Police Scotland did not uphold the applicant’s complaint.

Our findings

We have found that Police Scotland did not handle the applicant’s complaint to a reasonable standard.

We have made a single recommendation to address the shortcomings in Police Scotland’s handling of the complaint.  We have also made an observation.

Our recommendation should be implemented by Police Scotland within two months of the date of this report.

Outcome

Police Scotland implemented our recommendation in full and took cognisance of our observation. In doing so, Police Scotland contacted the applicant to obtain further detail about the complaint, which resulted in Police Scotland acknowledging that there was inaccuracies within a report prepared by an officer. This resulted in the complaint being upheld and learning identified for the officer involved. In terms of our observation, Police Scotland accepted that their initial response should have been sent to the applicant, as opposed to his son. 

Police Bodies : Police Scotland