Complaints

The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) is committed to ensuring the best possible policing service is delivered throughout Scotland. We appreciate, however, there may be times when you are dissatisfied with the service provided and, if so, we would welcome your comments.

If you do wish to make a complaint, we will:

• Respond promptly
• Treat you with fairness and courtesy
• Keep you informed of progress

What complaints CAN the SPA deal with?

We are responsible for recording, processing and managing complaints about:

• A senior police officer of Police Scotland, at the rank of Assistant Chief Constable, Deputy Chief Constable or Chief Constable
• A staff member of the SPA
• The SPA itself

The SPA CANNOT deal with complaints about:

• A police officer of Police Scotland at the rank of Chief Superintendent, Superintendent, Chief Inspector, Inspector, Sergeant or Constable; A Special Constable; a cadet or Police Staff working within Police Scotland,where that member of Police Scotland has failed to meet the standards you expect of if you believe they have behaved unfairly or incorrectly.
• Police Scotland’s Quality of Service e.g. their policies and procedures or the delivery of their service and the outcome.

These are dealt with by Police Scotland. For further details on Police Scotland’s complaints process, please click on the following link:  Police Scotland complaints about the Police

In addition, there are several other police bodies operating in Scotland. We cannot deal with complaints about these organisations. For further details, please click on the following links:

• British Transport Police  
• British Transport Police Authority 
• Civil Nuclear Constabulary  
• Civil Nuclear Police Authority 
• Ministry of Defence Police 
• National Crime Agency 
• UK Border Agency 

For complaints about police officers in other UK Police Forces, please contact the relevant police force directly.