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Appendix D International stakeholder questionnaire

Paddy Tomkins
QPMBA(Hons) RCDS
HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary

Sir Peter Ricketts
Permanent Under Secretary

14 July 2008

Dear Sir Peter

HM Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland Independent review of policing in Scotland

The Cabinet Secretary for Justice in Scotland has asked me to undertake a short and focused review of certain aspects of policing in Scotland by the end of December 2008. The remit is attached for information.

As part of this work I intend to seek good practice in other parts of the world (as well as other parts of the United Kingdom) and I wonder if the FCO might assist in helping to point us in the direction of those countries where there is some similarity to policing in the UK, and some arrangement for ensuring that local policing is consistently supported by readily available specialist and expert policing.

Simply stated we seek your advice in identifying a handful of countries from which we might learn, and in locating a single contact in each who might be prepared to answer a short series of factual questions about the policing arrangements. Any assistance you can offer would be greatly appreciated. This aspect of our work is being led by a former Assistant Inspector of Constabulary, Malcolm R Dickson QPM, who can be contacted at XXXXXXXX or by writing to him at XXXXXXX.

Yours sincerely,

Paddy Tomkins
QPM BA(Hons) RCDS
HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary

27 November 2008

Dear Sir

Independent review of policing in Scotland International scoping study

I am writing to seek your assistance with the above review. This should not be difficult nor time-consuming but should help me to carry out an important piece of work for policing in Scotland.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland ( HMICS) is an independent, government-funded body responsible for monitoring and improving the police services in Scotland. HMICS does this by:

• inspecting and advising police forces and services
• carrying out 'thematic' inspections
• providing advice to Scottish Ministers.

Although HMICS is independent of the Scottish Government, Ministers can call upon the Inspectorate to undertake particular pieces of work.

The Cabinet Secretary for Justice in Scotland (senior minister for justice, including policing), Mr Kenny MacAskill, announced on 23 May 2008 that he had asked me to conduct an independent review of policing in Scotland and to report with recommendations by the end of December 2008.

The remit given by the Cabinet Secretary was as follows:

To review the roles and responsibilities of police forces in Scotland with the aim of ensuring

• that all Scotland's communities have equal access to expert and specialist policing and to the resources necessary to investigate major crime, whenever they need it;
• that the delivery of such policing responsibilities does not divert resources away from visible policing in communities;
• in pursuance of this to identify policing responsibilities which might more effectively be delivered nationally, regionally, or by collaboration between forces;
• and to make recommendations for the organisation, governance and accountability which best supports the delivery of those policing responsibilities.

As part of this review I have asked for a brief international scoping of policing arrangements in those countries which are generally assessed to have developed appropriate arrangements for balancing local policing needs with national policing responsibilities. Reference to academic advice has suggested that the following countries would be worthy of inclusion in this scoping exercise: Australia, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands. The intention is to ask knowledgeable and authoritative government contacts in each of these countries to respond to a common set of factual questions about their policing systems.

In seeking to identify government contacts one of my review team, Mr Malcolm R Dickson, has spoken to Europol liaison officers for member states of the EU, and to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office for the other countries. The Scottish Government has provided the appropriate contact for the Northern Ireland Office. Malcolm has been advised that you should be able to respond to this request in relation to policing in your country. We appreciate that many of the questions relate to technical aspects of policing which may best be answered by reference to police officers, and this is of course acceptable but we would still prefer the final response - since it is to help inform Scottish Ministers - to come from your government.

I would therefore be very grateful if you could arrange to have the attached questionnaire completed for your country, signed by the most appropriate senior government official or Minister, and returned to me, if at all possible by 17 October 2008.

Yours sincerely

Paddy Tomkins
HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland

Paddy Tomkins
QPM BA(Hons) RCDS
HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary

INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF POLICING IN SCOTLAND

International Scoping Questionnaire

Introduction

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland ( HMICS) is an independent, Government-funded body responsible for monitoring and improving the police services in Scotland. HMICS does this by:

• inspecting and advising police forces and services
• carrying out 'thematic' inspections
• providing advice to Scottish Ministers.

Although HMICS is independent of the Scottish Government, Ministers can call upon the Inspectorate to undertake particular pieces of work.

The Cabinet Secretary for Justice in Scotland (senior minister for justice), Mr Kenny MacAskill, announced on 23 May 2008 that he had asked Paddy Tomkins, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland to conduct an independent review of policing in Scotland and to report with recommendations by the end of December 2008.

The remit given by the Cabinet Secretary was as follows:

To review the roles and responsibilities of police forces in Scotland with the aim of ensuring

• that all Scotland's communities have equal access to expert and specialist policing and to the resources necessary to investigate major crime, whenever they need it;
• that the delivery of such policing responsibilities does not divert resources away from visible policing in communities;
• in pursuance of this to identify policing responsibilities which might more effectively be delivered nationally, regionally, or by collaboration between forces;
• and to make recommendations for the organisation, governance and accountability which best supports the delivery of those policing responsibilities.

As part of this review HMICS intends to undertake a brief international scoping of policing arrangements in those countries which are generally assessed to have developed appropriate arrangements for balancing local policing needs with national policing responsibilities. Reference to academic advice has suggested that the following countries would be worthy of inclusion in this scoping exercise: Australia, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands. The intention is to ask knowledgeable and authoritative government contacts in each of these countries to respond to a common set of largely factual questions about their policing systems.

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office has assisted in providing contacts in Commonwealth countries and Europol has assisted for the Member States of the European Union.

The Questions

There are only 20 questions but one of these (Question 2) is sub-divided into a multiple-choice type of 'tick-box' with over 100 sections.

For the purposes of this exercise we have given the following meanings to the terms 'local policing', 'regional policing' and 'national policing', although we appreciate that not all countries will have such clear-cut splits or have as many splits:

local policing: A single large policing unit covering several towns or a part of a large city, sometimes with a rural area included, often sub-divided into smaller geographical units. Officers will normally be based in local towns or rural areas, managed by a locally based chain of command. The unit will be generally capable of dealing with most aspects of policing within its geographical area but either requires assistance from outside that area for some specialist and expert policing on a regular basis or some specialist and expert policing is provided separately.

regional policing: There may be three types of regional policing: (a) a grouping of local policing units such as those described under 'local policing' above into a single organisation with a further chain of command above local commanders (as in the UK model of 'forces'), or (b) a partnership of autonomous or independent local units which collaborate for mutual support in some aspects of expert and specialist policing or for other resource assistance, or (c) a single organisation covering a local government area of substantial size containing several large towns and cities but without further geographical sub-division. All three models may have differing capabilities in terms of expert and specialist policing.

national policing: The provision of a combination of one or more of five types of policing across the whole country: (a) the command and control, by means of one or more organisations, of the majority of policing, (b) the command and control, by means of one or more organisations, of a proportion of policing, (c) the co-ordination and policy direction of some specialist and expert policing, (d) the co-ordination, policy direction and delivery of some specialist and expert policing, (e) the delivery only of some specialist and expert types of policing.

1. Are there separations between local, regional and national policing in your country? If so, can you describe the models along the lines of the definitions given above? (We accept that there may alternatively be one or two or more than three organisations or levels of policing and we would appreciate a description whatever the case, using similar terms to those used above).

2. Which of the following functions are carried out at each level? We appreciate that this list will not be inclusive for some police organisations and that some of these functions will be carried out by other organisations. Our primary interest is in what is common between Scottish policing and policing elsewhere. Against each of the functions/activities listed please indicate by ticking the 'local' box if this is solely carried out by local policing, the 'regional' box if this is solely carried out by regional policing arrangements, the 'national' box if this is solely carried out by national policing arrangements, or any combination of these three boxes which appears to best describe a combination of provision in your country. If the function/activity is undertaken by a different organisation (not a police organisation) please indicate by ticking the 'different' box. (For the purposes of this exercise serious crime is intended to cover such crimes as homicide, rape and other serious sexual violence, kidnap/abduction, terrorism, serious fraud, armed robbery involving high values of property, human trafficking, thefts of high value property and corruption.)

3. If there is more than one body undertaking national policing responsibilities, please briefly describe each and indicate in the table above which functions/activities they undertake.

4. Do all of the officers who carry out local policing have the same powers as each other?

5. Do all of the officers who carry out regional policing have the same powers as local officers, or more or less?

6. Do all of the officers who carry out national policing have the same powers as regional and local officers or more or less?

7. Is there any movement of personnel between levels of policing, either temporarily or permanently?

8. How is local policing related to elected local politicians? What powers do local/regional politicians have over local and regional policing?

9. Do national, elected politicians have any responsibility for local or regional policing?

10. What are the arrangements, if any, for local, regional and national policing services to report on their activities and performance to the public and/or to holders of political office?

11. How can local communities or individual members of the public influence policing at local, regional and national level?

12. What criteria if any dictate when one level of policing becomes involved in something initially handled by another level, and who makes the decision?

13. Are any cases or matters initially handled by national or regional policing ever handed 'down' to a lower level?

14. How are the different levels of policing funded?

15. When specialist and expert policing assistance or support is provided by one policing organisation to another, how is this funded?

16. Are there any formal systems of communication and liaison meetings between levels of policing?

17. Are there any national co-ordination bodies for policing and other law enforcement agencies?

18. Are there any intentions to change any of the above arrangements (in relation to questions 1-17)?

19. Can you offer quantitative evidence for the quality or success of your policing arrangements (for instance improving and high general public satisfaction levels, improving and high user satisfaction levels, improving and high levels of detected volume crime, successful detections for serious crimes).

20. Please provide the following numerical data where relevant and possible, in all cases for the year 2007-08, or the latest available data (please indicate which year has been used if not 2007-08):

21. Questionnaire completed and returned under the authority of:

Name:

Title:

Signature:

Thank you very much for your assistance.

PLEASE NOTE; Unless you ask us not to, we intend to publish all responses to this and other requests for evidence on our website. Please indicate with your response if you do not wish your response, or particular parts of it, to be published in this way.

Likewise, the results of the review will be published on our website in the early part of 2009 at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Justice/public-safety/Police/15403

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