BBC investigation: Police Scotland attempted to suppress 'corruption' report

However, the BBC investigation has claimed that earlier drafts of the confidential report showed that the then chief constable’s office’s wanted sections edited and removed.

READ MORE: Police chief sued for £2 million over Sheku Bayoh case

An internal Police Scotland email also showed that House indicated he was prepared to “suppress” the report altogether, unless a specific word was changed.

Moi Ali, who resigned from the Scottish Police Authority board last year after a row over transparency at the organisation, said:

“I am shocked that the chief constable’s office should see fit to try to pretty much obliterate any kind of criticism whatsoever because if this is what the report found, then this is what it found and this is what should have been published.”

The documentary - A Force in Crisis – focuses on the crises that have hit Police Scotland since it came into being five years ago.

READ MORE: Scottish Police Authority in transparency row after blocking the public from quizzing the board

A key part of the investigation involved the BBC obtaining a report that was based on 334 officers and staff at Police Scotland being asked for their views on the force and its management anonymously.

Five previous drafts of the ‘Police Scotland Quality Assurance Review’ were leaked and internal memos within the first version showed details of misconduct and corrupt behaviour by officers.

According to one memo, various conduct issues were found in one unit in Tayside, including officers conducting unauthorised surveillance, threatening and intimidating witnesses, unlawfully detaining suspects, colluding whilst compiling statements and failing to reveal evidence.

A second memo described how two detectives were seen on a police station’s CCTV with a murder suspect. The officers stood either side of him and began to “informally” interview him, “assert his guilt” and all “without affording him a common law caution.” Both memos did not make it into the final version of the report.

Leaked documents also show that attempts were made by the then chief constable’s office to have changes made to the report.

In the fourth version, Sir Stephen House’s handwriting is visible, as well as the writing of another official.

In one section, entitled “Expressions of Fear and Anxiety,” a pen has scored out these words and replaced them with the phrase “Culture and Communication”, a change that is included in the final report.

An email obtained by the BBC also focused on a specific word that House wanted changed: “The chief will not allow the report to be tabled unless this is amended.”

READ MORE: Police chief sued for £2 million over Sheku Bayoh case

The disputed word was in the following sentence: “It is clear that much anxiety and uncertainty as to what was expected remains among staff at operational unit level.”

The email continued: “The proposal is to change the word remains to ‘existed’.”

“Apparently this was almost a ‘last straw’ from the chief and there is a danger that he will suppress this unless amended.”

Brian Barbour, who also used to sit on the SPA board, criticised the editing of the report: “It’s been changed and diluted and the message that’s come out isn’t the view of those who expressed it in the first place. It makes me feel as though I’ve been part of an organisation that has let people down.”

In a statement Police Scotland said “significant changes have been implemented” since the report was written in 2014 and that “last year DCC Iain Livingstone, the interim Chief Constable, led the development of and launched a wellbeing strategy for all officers and staff.”

It added: “DCC Livingstone has already acknowledged that in the early days of Police Scotland process was put ahead of people at a time of challenge and difficulty for everyone involved.”

Sir Stephen House did not provide a comment.