Chamber and committees

What is the right point in time?

I am sorry—yes. She has had many jobs.

Is there a particular problem with police officers not attending?

However, there is no legal reason why someone cannot be told of a criminal allegation against them. Indeed, I asked the Lord Advocate about that last week when she gave evidence, because we had a specific case in front of us. I cannot remember the timescale involved, but the officer was not aware of the allegations for a considerable period of time. It was suggested that there might have been a legal reason for that, but, when I checked with the Lord Advocate last week, she said that there were no such legal reasons.

I think that it was the week before. We heard about a case that took quite a period of time, and, last week, I asked the Lord Advocate whether there was any specific legal reason for an officer not being told. The officer that we heard from was on restricted duties while they were waiting.

Good morning. The bill does not say whether the duty of candour will apply to police officers who are off duty. Will you give a view as to why you think that the bill should cover that?

You just want clarity on that. You are not particularly arguing for off-duty officers to be included.

Thank you for that.

My next question relates to whistleblowing. We have only scratched the surface of some of this stuff, to be honest, but I have not encountered any cases of whistleblowing in Police Scotland. We have had cases elsewhere. Is there a need for a definition of whistleblowing, given that it could mean a lot of different things? Some people might have seen something that they want to report, but are there any grey areas? To me, whistleblowing tends to involve a bigger systemic failure that it is in the public interest for someone to report. Can you comment on that?

Katharina Kasper, do you want to add anything?

Good afternoon. I want to clarify something in your answer to Russell Findlay’s question about complaints about excessive force and handcuffs. Are there two separate heads of complaint for that—assault and excessive force?