Six people have applied for the post of chief constable of Police Scotland, none of them women.
It was reported that there were three internal applicants for the £212,000 post including deputy chief constable designate Neil Richardson, and deputy chief constables Iain Livingstone and Steve Allen.
Also, Bill Skelly, deputy chief constable in Devon and Cornwall, and Johnny Gwynne, deputy director of the National Crime Agency, both previously worked in Scotland.
Phil Gormley, a former chief constable in Norfolk and now a deputy director of the National Crime Agency, was said to be the sixth applicant.
Interviews will be held in early November.
The successful candidate takes on a force fending off criticism over a series of scandals and a massive overspend.
The single police force set up in 2013 and tasked with achieving a £1bn of savings.
It has a forecast £25 million overspend, more than double from £11m earlier this year.
Controversies have included the M9 incident in which a Falkirk couple were left in their crashed car for three days despite the alert having been raised with police and the custody death of Sheku Bayoh.
Fears have also been raised over the cuts with 1,500 jobs lost, and unions including Unison claiming another 1,000 could be cut.
Mr Richardson has been standing in for Sir Stephen on some occasions when the chief constable has been engaged elsewhere.
Mr Livingstone is said to have support of many rank and file officers while Mr Allen (pictured below) as deputy chief constable responsible for major events, was behind the running of the Commonwealth Games and Ryder Cup last year.
A spokeswoman from the SPA would not confirm the names of the applicants but said: "The closing date for applications was Monday of this week and we anticipate an appointment being announced early December."
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