Exclusive:Insight: Police watchdog warns complaint delays are impacting public trust
Police Investigations and Review Commissioner sounds alarm over unprecedented demand
Scotland's police watchdog has warned of a growing dissatisfaction over police handling of complaints and the knock-on effect on bereaved families and wider public confidence in Police Scotland.
Police Investigations and Review Commissioner Laura Paton said an “incredible” record level of demand was risking her ability to help deliver justice on behalf of communities, stressing that there is “a limit to what we alone can achieve.”
She further warned that a growing workload and resource constraints means it may not be able to deliver the service that the public expects.
Ms Paton said that without additional backing, the timescales of its increasingly complex investigations would only grow longer, and stressed that such a trend would see people lose faith not just in the watchdog, but the wider justice process and institutions more generally.
In her first media interview since being appointed last year as commissioner, a role which involves investigating incidents involving the police and reviewing how policing bodies handle complaints from the public, Ms Paton expressed concern over the "significant” backlog of complaints received by Police Scotland, with hundreds of people still awaiting a response.
She also raised questions over the force’s complaints process, pointing out that of the complaints PIRC reviewed across 2025/26, only 48 per cent were deemed to have been reasonably handled.
“That really is a huge concern,” she said. “Years back, we would have been up at the 60 to 70 per cent figure. It’s really disappointing that complainers are not getting the service that we would expect them to get.”
Rising complaints
While PIRC may not be among the most visible strands of Scotland’s justice system, its function as an independent investigatory body has arguably never been more important, especially around the fundamental aims of securing public confidence in policing.
According to the most recent annual report by the Scottish Police Authority’s (SPA) complaints and conduct committee, Police Scotland received 6,637 complaints from members of the public in 2024/25. That was down 653 from 2023/24, but there were increases in certain categories of allegations, such as excessive force (up b23.3 per cent) corrupt practice (11.1 per cent), and neglect of duty (8.1 per cent.)
The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey found only 45 per cent of adults believed police in their local area were doing an ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ job in 2024/25. When the question was first asked in 2012/13, the figure was 61 per cent. Of those people who had an interaction with the police for any reason, only 60 per cent were satisfied with how officers handled the matter, down from 70 per cent in 2018/19.
Increasingly, that discontent extends to how the force is dealing with complaints. PIRC received 295 applications in 2025/26 for a complaint handling review (CHR) from members of the public - a 29 per cent increase on the previous year.
“We’re seeing a greater proportion of people applying to us for a CHR, which means they’re dissatisfied with the response,” Ms Paton said. “We found that last year, out of the complaints we did review, only 48 per cent of those were reasonably handled.”
Amid all the statistics, Ms Paton is keen to emphasise that every one of those CHRs involves people. One “really concerning” complaint PIRC recently reviewed concerned a teenage girl who had her clothing forcibly removed while in police custody.
“This was an incredibly traumatic experience,” she reflected. “Nobody asked her from her perspective about her experience, and yet she was a key witness. We’re really looking for custody policies to be more child-focused.”
Recommendations backlog
The way in which Scotland’s national force is handling complaints, and just as importantly, learning from them, is a key focus for PIRC. While some may be relatively low level, Ms Paton points out that others involve serious offending, or concerns from family members about inadequate investigations into the death of loved ones.
Faced with its own fiscal pressures, Police Scotland has temporarily reallocated some professional standards department resources to help non-criminal complaint handling teams. But the strain remains visible - as of last month, some 337 investigations remained unallocated.
Ms Paton said: “Every single one of those complaints is a person who is already dissatisfied with the police service they’ve received, and they then become dissatisfied with the complaint handling response they’ve received. I think they do lose faith during that process.”
The commissioner said PIRC has had “a lot of engagement” with Police Scotland and the SPA about complaints handling, and while recognising ongoing efforts, she said more needs to be done. “They haven’t been as successful as we want,” she explained. “What we want is a long-term sustainable solution to that backlog that ensures it can't happen again.”
PIRC is also determined to help Police Scotland improve the pace at which it implements change. Out of 231 recommendations PIRC made to the force in 2025/26, 140 of those remain outstanding.
“It’s absolutely a concern that there are so many outstanding recommendations,” Ms Paton said. “Our expectation is that recommendations are implemented within two months, but I’ve had many complainers write to me after several months to say their case is still not sorted.”
‘No sign of it abating’
The growing number of CHRs is far from the only pressure on PIRC’s workload. Having contended with a surge of investigations resulting from the change in the law around corroboration, which resulted in a spike of allegations of assault against police officers, it also initiated 41 investigations into deaths involving policing in 2025/26.
The total represents a 128 per cent increase from the 18 investigations it commenced in 2024/25, and this year PIRC has been dealing with its highest ever caseload of simultaneous death investigations.“There is no sign of it abating,” Ms Paton said.
Another pinch point is the growing number of investigations directed to PIRC from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS). Out of the 185 referrals PIRC took forward to full investigation in 2025/26, 95 per cent were instructed by the Crown. A few years ago, the proportion stood at around 75 per cent.
Despite PIRC’s best efforts, the cumulative demand is impacting on its performance. While still exceeding its strategic objective to complete 80 per cent of category A investigations - the most serious - within 90 days, its hit rate dropped from 100 per cent in 2024/25 to 83 per cent in 2025/26. Its targets for category B and C investigations, meanwhile, were not met.
“We are experiencing a sustained increase in demand that exceeds our available resources and is beyond our control,” said Ms Paton, previously His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prosecution in Scotland. “We will take all reasonable steps to work efficiently, prioritise serious investigations, and maintain the quality of those investigations, however there is a limit to what we alone can achieve.
“In the absence of external intervention - such as a reduction in demand, additional funding or the delayed expansion of our statutory functions - a further deterioration in the timeliness of our investigations is inevitable.
“Many of the incidents we're investigating involve people who may be experiencing the worst thing that's happened to them in their life. If we’re not able to deliver the service they expect from us, then that’s a real concern - they’ll lose faith in PIRC, and I think they’ll also lose faith in the broader justice process and institutions generally.”
‘Missed opportunity’
An increasing challenge to its ability to meet its own benchmarks is not the only consequence of PIRC’s resource issues. The quantity of mandatory investigations instructed by the COPFS means there is less scope for important discretionary work.
In recent years, such investigations have scrutinised police deployment of Tasers, or the use of the incapacitating Pava spray on children. Ideally, Ms Paton would like to conduct more proactive preventative work, particularly around the sexual exploitation of children online, and violence against women, but a lack of capacity is hindering such goals.
“It’s a missed opportunity,” she reasoned. “Where we’re able to exercise discretion, it can result in some of the most valuable investigations in terms of learning, supporting improvement of policing, and preventing future incidents from being directed to us by the Crown.
“It’s also important to remember that parliament intended us to have that discretionary power. If we’re not able to exercise it, there’s a question of whether we’re fulfilling the mandate Holyrood set out for us.”
Another area where Ms Paton would like to see change concerns the investigation of police officers alleged to have committed sexual offences or violence against women and girls. The spate of recent high-profile convictions, she said, indicated that Police Scotland was doing a “good job” investigating cases, but she said both her partners in the justice sphere and the wider public might be surprised at the fact that PRC, is an independent oversight body, is not routinely involved.
“I think that’s a real issue that requires further exploration,” she said. “When you’ve got allegations of serious offending by a police officer, would there be more reassurance for the public if an independent body like PIRC was taking the lead on those investigations?
“My predecessor wrote to the former Lord Advocate suggesting there was maybe a bigger role for PIRC in investigating those kinds of allegations, and that's something I’d absolutely support. However we also have to be mindful of the resources available to us - those cases require specialist expertise.”
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