His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, which recently produced its annual report into the state of Police Scotland, may no longer be fit for purpose, argues Calum Steele, a former General Secretary of the Scottish Police Federation

His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary is probably one of the grandest-sounding titles held by anyone in Scotland. Every one I have ever known that has held the position makes great play about the office and its uniquely special role within policing – and especially on how they hold the post by virtue of a royal warrant, as though the monarch themselves hand-picked them for the role.

Historically a revered role, the Chief Inspector of Constabularies was always a former chief constable of some standing – as daring to proffer a view on how any chief constable was running his or her force without having any experience of ever having done the same was never going to work. Being told how to get your house in order is never going to be news any chief constable wants to hear, but hearing it from a peer it made it news that was impossible to ignore.

On the run-up to the creation of the single police service in 2013 there was some chatter that the functions of HMICS (within which the chief inspector ruled) would become redundant. Why, it was argued, would you have an Inspectorate of Constabularies when the constabularies themselves were being done away with, and the soon to be created Scottish Police Authority (SPA) would carry out all the scrutiny and “inspecting” that could conceivably be required?

As it happened the flirtation with abolition was short lived, in no........

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