Other criminal justice agencies

4.1 Sometimes COPFS receives complaints about the roles and responsibilities of other agencies in the criminal justice system, for example, the p olice, the Scottish Court Service, or the judiciary. While we work closely with a number of other criminal justice agencies, we cannot deal with complaints which do not fall within COPFS remit.

4.2 If we cannot deal with a complaint (or parts of a complaint) for that reason, we will try to provide you with details of the appropriate agency that may be able to assist you.

Unacceptable actions

4.3 COPFS may refuse to deal with complaints received from the relatively few customers whose actions or behaviour we consider unacceptable. We aim to provide a service that is accessible to all customers who wish to make a complaint. However, we retain the right, where we consider actions to be unacceptable, to restrict or change access to our service.

4.4 We do not view behaviour as unacceptable just because a customer is forceful or determined. In fact, we accept that being persistent can be a positive advantage when pursuing a complaint. However, the actions of customers who are angry, demanding or persistent may result in unreasonable demands on us or unreasonable behaviour towards our staff.

4.5 Actions considered to be unacceptable are grouped into the following three headings:

• Aggressive or abusive behaviour

• Unreasonable demands

• Unreasonable persistence

4.6 We may say that we consider a customer to be making unreasonable demands or as being unreasonably persistent because of the amount of information they seek, the nature and scale of service they expect or the number of approaches they make.

Aggressive or abusive behaviour

4.7 Examples of behaviour under this heading include threats, physical violence, personal verbal abuse, swearing, derogatory remarks and rudeness. We also consider that inflammatory statements and unsubstantiated allegations can be abusive behaviour.

Unreasonable demands

4.8 Examples of actions under this heading include demanding responses within an unreasonable timescale, insisting on seeing or speaking to a particular member of staff, continual phone calls or letters, repeatedly changing the substance of the complaint or raising unrelated concerns.

4.9 We will not consider these unacceptable and unreasonable demands because they impact substantially on our work and diminish service to all.

Unreasonable persistence

4.10 Examples of actions grouped under this heading include persistent refusal to accept a decision made in relation to a complaint, persistent refusal to accept explanations relating to what this office can or cannot do, and to continue to contact us without presenting any new information.

4.11 We will not consider these persistent complaints to be acceptable when they take up a disproportionate amount of time and resources.

Managing unacceptable actions

4.12 There are very few customers whose actions we consider unacceptable. How we aim to manage these actions depends on their nature and extent. Where a customer falls into any of the above categories considered unacceptable we may take any actions as we consider appropriate including informing the customer that no further action will be taken in response to their complaint and advising them that only new or substantive issues will receive further response.