A REVIEW group set up to produce a “rapid” assessment of police governance has still to meet – a full two months after it was announced.
The Scottish Police Authority – which oversees the single force – has also failed to make any formal announcements of who is sitting on the body.
Police Scotland has been on the backfoot for 18 months over a series of policy, budget and operational failures.
However, the SPA has taken much of the political flak for the shortcomings.
The watchdog was not in the loop when Chief Constable Sir Stephen House rolled out his armed policing policy and it failed to get to grips with the row over the industrial use of stop and search.
When the SPA eventually reviewed the force’s search policy, a draft report containing a damning international comparison was taken out.
On September 3 this year, Justice Secretary Michael Matheson tasked SPA chair Andrew Flanagan with undertaking an “immediate” review of governance.
He asked that the exercise be completed within six months, which from the time of the statement would be March.
The remit of the review is to ensure that “local interests” are effectively represented in national scrutiny processes and guarantee that the SPA has the “appropriate structures and skills” to scrutinise the force.
The team will also review the “information flows” between the SPA and the force and examine the way the authority works with other stakeholders.
Flanagan will chair the review, but the group has yet to meet and no members have been announced.
A recent SPA board paper said the watchdog was in the process of the finalising membership and it was anticipated the group would meet in November.
Graeme Pearson, the Scottish Labour justice spokesman whose own review of policing was critical of the SPA, said: “There needs to be full transparency regarding Police Scotland so that we can get to the bottom of the failings in the service and then fix them – it is the least that the public and hard-working officers deserve.
"In September, we welcomed this review and it is disappointing that two months later no appointments have been made and no meetings have taken place.
"Time and again, the Justice Minister has been warned to get a grip, but he still isn't hearing the message from the public and officers. This review needs to get off the ground.”
Scottish Conservative chief whip John Lamont said: "Given the gravity of the events which prompted this review it's extremely concerning that it's not even underway yet. It seems the platitudes given by the Scottish Government at the start of September have come to absolutely nothing.
"The SNP wants to be judged on its record and police reform was a key policy of its time in government. As such, the electorate needs to see the results of this well before the vote in May.?"
An SPA spokesperson said: "The SPA's governance review is progressing well and the chair will report as planned by March of 2016. Work is underway on all four strands of the remit, with dedicated capacity drawn from the existing SPA officer team. All 32 local authorities have been actively invited to contribute, and many have already taken up the opportunity to be involved. A reference group with both policing and wider governance expertise will also meet in the next fortnight to advise and test emerging outputs of the review process."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel