Police will only be able to search Scots if they have reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing, under a dramatic justice shake-up to be unveiled today.
Two “pretty damning” reports into a controversial stop and search policy and the operation of control rooms will be published before Justice Secretary Michael Matheson is grilled by MSPs.
An independent advisory group, led by human rights lawyer John Scott QC, is expected to demand the end of “consensual” frisking by officers and recommend a draft consultation on the power to search children under 18 for alcohol.
The Courier understands that Mr Matheson will follow First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement of a “statutory code of practice” in her programme for government with a commitment to scrap non-statutory searches.
Of the two types of stop and search used in Scotland, statutory searches require reasonable suspicion but not an individual’s consent but non-statutory searches do not need a reason.
It has previously been revealed that dozens of children under the age of 12 were being searched against police policy, while records of searches were found to be inaccurate and incomplete.
The investigation into how control rooms operate will deliver its interim verdict this morning too and is unlikely to provide any comfort for ministers.
It is understood representatives of officers and staff were denied their usual advance sight of the report last night.
Senior figures from across the beleaguered force and those close to the report itself, ordered in the wake of the M9 tragedy, said workers who had an input into the findings were keen to “get things off their chest”.
Scotland’s six main control rooms, including in Dundee, were visited by the team from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland as part of the review. Thousands of surveys were returned, understood to be roughly split half and half between members of the public and the police civilian staff and officers who operate the contact centres.
However, the results of these will not be revealed until the full report is published in October.
One source said: “People are getting things off their chests and they have screeds of things to get off their chests. The number of survey returns shows the strength of feeling.”
Another insider said a strained relationship between HM Inspector of Constabulary Derek Penman and the outgoing Police Scotland Chief Constable Sir Stephen House could add an edge to proceedings.