What can I do if I am unhappy with the outcome of my complaint?

You should try to be prepared that an outcome that might not be what you hoped for. If you are unhappy with the outcome of your complaint it may be helpful to talk this through with a SWRC advocacy worker or other support service. They can help you explore your options and consider next steps. 

If you are unhappy with how the police dealt with your complaint, you can ask the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) to review how it was handled.

The PIRC is independent of Police Scotland. They will not reinvestigate the original complaint, but they can decide whether it was handled to a reasonable standard. Where appropriate, they will make recommendations and identify points of learning for the police. These recommendations should be implemented within 2 months of the date of PIRC report. If the PIRC decide the complaint was not dealt with correctly by the police, they can tell police to reconsider the complaint.

If you want to refer your complaint to the PIRC, you should do this within 3 months of the date on your Final Response letter. In exceptional circumstances they may accept your complaint after this deadline, but this is not guaranteed.

Find out more about the role of the PIRC including how to request a Complaint Handling Review Report and how long it is likely to take on the PIRC website.

SWRC advocacy workers or other support organisations may be able to help you with this process.

Once PIRC have completed their review, they may find that the police did handle your complaint to a reasonable standard. Their decisions, findings and conclusions are final and there is no statutory review or appeal available. However, if you are unhappy with their decision, you can talk to an adviser at your local Citizens Advice Bureau or a solicitor about any further action which may be available. You may also wish to contact the SWRC using our helpline or contact form and arrange to speak to one of our solicitors.

If you are not satisfied with PIRC’s standard of service, you have experienced unreasonable delay in your review, or you are not happy with how you were treated by a member of staff, you can complain directly to PIRC. In some cases, this may lead to an internal investigation.

You usually need to make your complaint within 6 months of first knowing about the problem. In exceptional circumstances, they may accept a complaint after this time limit. You can find more information about internal complaints on the PIRC website.

If after this, you are still unhappy with their decision or the way they have dealt with your complaint, you can ask the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) to review it.

If you remain unhappy with the PIRC decision after the PIRC review, you may be able to ask for a judicial review. The judicial review process is a legal way to challenge the decisions of a public body in court.

Judicial review is a court process that allows you to ask a judge to review a decision, policy, action, or failure to act by a public body. The judicial review application must be made within 3 months of the PIRC decision.

If this is something you wish to consider, it is important to seek legal advice urgently. In very limited circumstances the court may allow an application for permission to raise a judicial review later than 3 months after the decision that is being challenged. However, this is rare and is at the discretion of the court. Judicial review is different from the Scottish Public Service Ombudsman’s (SPSO) internal review process. You can read more about this below. 

Engaging with the SPSO review process does not affect the 3-month time limit for judicial review. If you want to pursue a judicial review you should get legal advice and representation urgently. Find more information in the JustRight Scotland factsheet about Judicial Reviews. You may also wish to contact SWRC using our helpline or contact form and arrange to speak to one of our solicitors.

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) looks into complaints about organisations that provide public services in Scotland, including the PIRC. Their job is to give an independent and impartial decision on complaints and to improve complaints handling processes within organisations.

The SPSO cannot normally review complaints:

• that have not gone through all stages of the PIRC’s complaints procedure
• that have been or are being considered in court
• more than 12 months after you became aware of the matter you want to complain about.

They might decide to look at the complaint after 12 months if certain circumstances stopped you from making it earlier, for example because of delays caused by the action or inaction of the organisation you are complaining about.

You can complain to the SPSO if:

• an organisation has not followed its own policies or procedures
• you’ve experienced rudeness from an organisation’s staff
• there’s been a delay in taking action or a failure to take action
• you’ve been treated unfairly compared to others
• you’ve been given wrong or misleading information.

In most cases, the ombudsman cannot investigate a decision made by an organisation simply because you disagree with the outcome. It can investigate the way a decision was reached.

The SPSO review is the final independent stage of the public service complaints processes. After they have made a final decision there are no further stages. You can find out more about the SPSO review process including the likely timescales on the SPSO website.