MSPs Question Police Scotland Transparency

MSPs are set to scrutinise the performance of Police Scotland at Holyrood today.

Members will highlight controversies like the deployment of armed officers on routine patrols, consensual stop and search, data loss and local accountability.

A motion to the parliament also states an Audit Scotland Report which raised concerns over officers carrying out duties that used to be undertaken by civilian staff, and the closure of local control rooms, such as Thornton in Fife.

Meanwhile, Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson Alison McInnes MSP has called for answers over delays to the publication of crucial police data on incidents including domestic abuse and drug offences.

It has emerged that Police Scotland has taken the decision to revise the release dates of four annual publications after the police encountered issues in merging the information. They are now expected to be published six months late.

This latest concern over police data follows revelations last month that police lost 20,000 stop and search records after hitting the wrong button.

Commenting, Alison McInnes said:

"Accurate police data is vital for the effective scrutiny of Scotland's criminal justice system. Only due to the perseverance of the media have we learnt about further problems with police data. This is frustrating because Police Scotland and the Scottish Government should have learnt by now, from controversies including stop and search and armed police, that they need to be open and upfront about these things.

"Nearly two years on from the creation of Police Scotland we need this data to fully understand the damaging impact of the SNP's centralisation agenda. It is certainly convenient for the SNP that these statistics now won’t be published until well after the election.

“I will be asking further questions about the implications of this delay."