Scotland's police watchdog has been criticised by opposition parties for producing an annual review of the force's performance that "pretends all is well when it clearly isn't".
In its 2016/17 assessment, the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) noted Police Scotland continues to provide "a high-quality" service across the country, with crime rates falling in most categories.
The review also found oversight of policing had been strengthened by the SPA board, which has "enhanced its skills and experience in key areas such as finance, audit and ICT, and reinforced its grip of the police budget and oversight of key change programmes like call handling".
However, the Scottish Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Conservatives said the report failed to address problems within both organisations.
Read more: Police Scotland service 'high quality', performance review finds
The SPA has been fiercely criticised over the past few months amid concerns over transparency and governance.
The intense scrutiny resulted in the resignation of its chair Andrew Flanagan last week.
Meanwhile, Police Scotland and the SPA have also come under fire over weak financial leadership, a multi-million pound budget deficit and the failure of a £46 million IT system.
Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesman Liam McArthur said the report was a "disservice" to police officers that "pretends that all is well when it clearly isn't".
Liam McArthur
Scottish Conservative MP Douglas Ross said: "For the SPA to praise policing in Scotland and give themselves a slap on the back at the same time is staggering.
"There are clearly problems within Police Scotland at present and pretending they don't exist will not help address any them.
"Given the mess that Andrew Flanagan has presided over during the last few months at the SPA, I doubt you will find anyone who believes that they have done a good job."
The review found the force dealt with 2.6 million calls during the year, up 1.1 per cent on the previous year, and recorded 1.6 million incidents, the review states.
There was a 2.4 per cent decrease in recorded crime while the force saw a 0.6 per cent decrease in overall violent crime.
Read more: Police Scotland service 'high quality', performance review finds
But there was a 5.2 per cent increase in some non-sexual violent crimes, driven by increases in serious assaults, robberies, threats and extortion, while sexual crime also rose by 5.2 per cent.
Some progress has already been made to address the increases while action has also been taken to tackle under-reporting, the review found.
Elsewhere, it noted local policing is "continuously improving", with feedback from local authority scrutiny bodies that community interests are being taken into account.
Meanwhile, at the end of 2016/17, public confidence levels reported by Police Scotland stood at 81 per cent but there is recognition more data is needed in this area.
While it noted oversight had been "strengthened by the SPA board", it acknowledged further work is required to "better clarify" the SPA's role and impact.
Mr Flanagan said: "SPA has assessed that Police Scotland met its annual objectives and continued to deliver a service to a high quality and consistency."
He added: "SPA's assessment is that we have good foundations for progressing to the next crucial phase of true service transformation and greater confidence in policing's direction and our collective ability to reach that destination than we could have stated 12 months ago."
Justice Secretary Michael Matheson (pictured above) said: "This report recognises the hard work of the entire policing workforce to deliver a high-quality service to communities.
"Crime is reducing in most categories and public confidence remains strong.
Read more: Police Scotland service 'high quality', performance review finds
"The review also acknowledges the challenges Police Scotland faces from changing demands and evolving threats.
"The upcoming publication of the ambitious Policing 2026 strategy will help ensure our police are well-equipped to deliver the best possible service for the whole of Scotland into the future."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel