The short answer
A useful response should be specific enough to check.
Turn labels such as civil matter, insufficient evidence and matter closed into precise questions about the act reported, evidence, decision-maker, record and review route.
For this question, a useful answer should identify the reported act, decision-maker, possible offences considered, evidence checked, recorded reason and review route. A label without those particulars may describe an outcome, but it does not expose the decision trail.
Put it in writing
Six follow-up questions
Use only the lines that fit. A numbered request makes an incomplete answer easier to identify without turning the letter into an accusation.
- 01
Please answer this question directly: Was a crime-recording decision separate from the decision about further investigation?
- 02
Please identify the person or role responsible for the answer and the date of the decision.
- 03
Please identify the legal power, published policy, procedure or test relied upon, including its current version.
- 04
Please identify the reported act, decision-maker, possible offences considered, evidence checked, recorded reason and review route.
- 05
If any part cannot be answered, please state whether the information is not held, cannot be disclosed, or requires a different request route.
- 06
Please identify any review, correction, complaint or appeal route and the deadline that applies.
Why record it?
Preserve the answer and the route to it.
Memory changes, reference numbers join separate systems, explanations can drift, and retention periods may expire. The point is a usable chronology kept by the reader, not evidence submitted to this website.
- □Date, time, place and method of contact
- □Name, role, organisation and team, if provided
- □The exact question asked and exact answer where possible
- □Every incident, complaint, case and document reference
- □The decision or refusal, reasons given and decision-maker
- □Evidence offered, what was accepted and what was declined
- □Promised action, deadline and next contact
- □Original documents and files, including metadata where available
Official starting points
Where the answer may be buried
These links are selected for this topic, not offered as a complete statement of the law. Read the current page, its jurisdiction and any stated deadline.
Make or follow up a complaint about action, lack of action or service.
https://www.scotland.police.uk/about-us/how-we-do-it/complaints/↗Police ScotlandFreedom of InformationRequest recorded non-personal information, policies and statistics.
https://www.scotland.police.uk/access-to-information/freedom-of-information/↗Police ScotlandSubject access requestsRequest your own personal data. Identification is required.
https://www.scotland.police.uk/access-to-information/data-protection/subject-access-requests↗PIRCComplaint Handling ReviewUnderstand PIRC's review of how a policing body handled a complaint.
https://www.pirc.scot/complaint-handling-review↗COPFSProsecution CodeRead the current evidential and public-interest framework for prosecution decisions.
https://www.copfs.gov.uk/publications/prosecution-code/html/↗Possible routes
The route depends on what is actually wrong.
Ask the decision-maker or organisation for the decision, reasons, authority and reference in writing.
A subject access request is different from an FOI request for policies, statistics or other recorded information.
Identify the exact statement, why it is inaccurate, the supporting record, and every later system or decision that may contain it.
Check the reviewer's actual remit. Some bodies review complaint handling but do not reinvestigate the original event.
Do not assume one process stops another deadline. Complaint, review, appeal, tribunal and court time limits can run separately.
