Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to UK counter terrorism operations, what (a) protocols and (b) guidance her Department has issued to the Scottish Police Authority to support its oversight of Police Scotland.

The Scottish Police Authority is responsible for the governance, oversight and administration of the Police Service in Scotland. The CONTEST Strategy sets out the UK’s approach to and objectives for reducing the risk to its citizens and interests overseas from terrorism. Since 2011 the UK Government and the Devolved Administrations have worked together with a shared recognition of the threat posed across the UK by terrorism and a shared strategic response. This close collaboration ensures that we are collectively able to fulfil the objectives of CONTEST across the UK recognising that many local delivery mechanisms, including policing, are devolved in Scotland. Furthermore, Scotland is able to use the police to police mechanism of mutual aid from an incident response perspective to request support from any other local forces as and when required.