Police call handling has ‘stabilised’

Police call-handling performance has “stabilised”, with recommendations from a major review now complete, according to an updated report.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) found Police Scotland is “strongly committed” to providing a good service and that staff morale and confidence has improved since an initial review of call-handling in 2015 in the wake of the deaths of John Yuill and Lamara Bell. All the recommendations made in the initial HMICS report have been completed or are no longer relevant but eight further recommendations have been made in the latest report, including IT investment, a public contact strategy and a procedure manual for the contact, command and control division.

The 2015 review was ordered by the Scottish Government following the deaths of Mr Yuill and Ms Bell, who lay undiscovered for days after a crash on the M9 near Stirling despite a sighting of their wrecked car being reported to a police control-room.

It reported weaknesses in Police Scotland’s approach to implementing its new national call-handling system, which has seen a number of controlrooms closed.

On the latest report, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Gillian Imery said: “A number of key milestones have been achieved, staff morale and confidence has improved and performance has stabilised. However, there are still some areas where further progress is required.”