A senior civil servant will run Scotland’s troubled civilian police watchdog as it undergoes a root-and-branch review.
Career bureaucrat Kenneth Hogg will next month take charge of the body overseeing the £1bn-a-year single force he himself helped design.
Mr Hogg’s appointment - on a one year secondment - comes amid high-profile departures from the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) and two investigations in to its role.
But it also follows new as yet unpublished research reflected niggling concerns among SPA board members over what they saw as potential government interference in their jobs.
Mr Hogg will serve as a £105,000-a-year interim chief officer, replacing current incumbent John Foley, who will stand down next month after SFA publishes its annual accounts.
He will initially work under current SFA chairman Andrew Flanagan, who announced his own resignation four months ago. Scottish Government officials are currently interviewing for Mr Flanagan’s replacement, with potential contenders said to include two respected former Labour politicians, Paul Rooney and Susan Deacon.
Some police insiders are concerned the “optics” of Mr Hogg’s appointment as his fellow civil servants and ministers seek to minimise the PR damage the SPA has inflected on Holyrood in recent years.
Former Chief Superintendent Niven Rennie, an expert in Scottish policing, said: “Kenneth Hogg is a highly regarded and able official.
“But I have concerns about government interference, especially at a civil servant level. “And this appointment reinforces what can look like the dominant position of the government in policing.
“There is a natural desire of civil servants to protect the reputation of the government at all costs.”
An unpublished PhD thesis is understood to contain anonymised quotes from SPA board members complaining of government pressure.
As revealed earlier this month at a fringe event at the SNP conference, quotes included members saying they feared they would not be reappointed if they challenged the government.
One unnamed board member said: “We are there by the gift of the minister or the cabinet secretary.”
Mr Hogg, who currently heads the government’s local government department after a spell in charge of policing was not appointed by the Scottish Government, but by the SPA.
Policing and government insiders stress his application for the post was unexpected.
His role, albeit temporary, is different to that of his predecessor. He will have no direct control over, for example, Police Scotland’s forensic services.
Outgoing chairman Mr Flanagan called Mr Hogg a “highly skilful and experienced”. He added: “He has a strong track-record in public service reform, financial accountability, engaging diverse stakeholders, encouraging participation and collaboration, and motivating and developing strong teams in high-profile areas of public service.
“All those capabilities fit well with the demands that come with the chief officer role, and it is of additional benefit that he has first-hand experience of the reforms to policing which underpin the structure and organisations we have today.”
Mr Hogg has been the Scottish Government’s Director of Local Government and Communities since 2013.
His 27-year career in the civil service has including a variety of positions in UK and Scottish governments. As director for Safer Communities from 2009 and 2012 he played a key role leading reforms of policing and the fire and rescue service.
Mr Hogg’s tenure should see dramatic changes to the SPA, which was branded “dysfunctional” by another watchdog, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland. The SPA, it said, had “fundamental weaknesses” at its top as board members quarrelled, not least over transparency.
Scotland’s chief constable, Phil Gormley, who was appointed by the SPA, remains on a leave of absence as bullying allegations are investigated. Any fall-out from that probe would hit the desks of Mr Hogg soon.
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