Police watchdog finds ‘significant disparity’ in forensic medical services for victims of sex crime amid legal confusion

A review of services provided to adult and child victims of sexual crime by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) found that further investment is needed in healthcare professionals, premises and equipment and that a lack of strategic leadership and governance over the provision of forensic medical services has limited progress towards improvements.

Forensic medical services should be delivered by health boards but remain a function and responsibility of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) under Section 31 of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012.

The current agreement for the provision of healthcare and forensic

medical service “creates a narrow distinction between the legal responsibility for providing forensic healthcare and its actual delivery,” the report states.

The current rules suggest the SPA has “outsourced its statutory responsibility to deliver forensic healthcare” to the NHS.

“Despite this, there is little evidence of the SPA recognising any legal responsibility for outsourcing forensic healthcare or providing any strategic leadership, governance or scrutiny over the agreement between Police Scotland and NHS Scotland.”

The report concludes that the Scottish government should “review the legal basis for the current agreement between Police Scotland, the Scottish Police Authority and NHS Scotland to deliver healthcare and forensic medical services” in order to inform any new memorandum of understanding between the parties.

HMICS also found that Scotland is well behind the rest of the UK in respect of availability of dedicated healthcare facilities which meet both the health needs of victims and the necessary forensic requirements.