Complaint Handling Reviews

The Complaints

The complaint in this case arose after the applicant made a report to the police about a court official’s behaviour, which he believed to be criminal. We have reviewed the handling of a single complaint, namely that:

• Police Scotland failed to investigate a report the applicant made about a Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service employee misdirecting a letter to a third party. 

Police Scotland’s Decision

Police Scotland did not investigate 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 issued a recommendation to address the shortcomings in Police Scotland’s handling of the complaints.

Specifically, we recommend that Police Scotland should undertake proportionate enquiries, re-assess the information available and provide the applicant with a fresh response.

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

Outcome

Police Scotland implemented the recommendation made in this case. They undertook further and necessary enquiries and re-assessed the information available. They then provided the applicant with a well reasoned further response in which they apologised to the applicant and upheld his complaint.

Police Bodies : Police Scotland