Section 25 – Use of the police support services
49.This section empowers the Scottish Ministers, in the interests of the efficiency and effectiveness of the police, to make regulations requiring all police forces (or a selection of them) to make use of particular police support services. The purpose of such regulations would be to avoid inefficient duplication of effort which might result if, for example, some police forces used databases provided by the Authority while others chose to develop their own. This is not an entirely new power as the Scottish Ministers currently have a similar power under section 36(2) of the 1967 Act to make regulations requiring police forces to use common police services provided and maintained under section 36 of the 1967 Act.
50.Subsection (4) requires the Scottish Ministers to consult the Authority, people who represent the interests of chief constables, unitary police authorities and joint police boards and any other appropriate organisations before using this power.