Police Scotland's new chief constable Philip Gormley has vowed to work collaboratively with the chairman of the body which oversees the force.
Mr Gormley made the pledge after previous tensions between his predecessor Sir Stephen House and the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) were raised at Holyrood's Public Audit Committee.
Conservative MSP Mary Scanlon said Sir Stephen and former SPA chairman Vic Emery "spent their time getting lawyers to work out their job descriptions and to argue what their responsibilities and accountabilities are".
During a session on an audit report of police accounts, she said the Auditor General had raised the need for "clear lines of accountability and good working relationships".
Andrew Flanagan, the new SPA chairman, said: "I think those things are essential, I fully agree with the Auditor General in this regard.
"Yes, there were difficulties in the inception of Police Scotland and the SPA about where the demarcation lines of responsibility fell. I think most of that has been sorted out.
"I am satisfied that we will have good relationships going forward."
Mr Gormley, who took on the role of chief constable last month, said: "I agree with that. My approach will be to work collaboratively and in a complementary manner to the police authority.
"In my experience, that is the only way we are going to generate light rather than heat, and I have no view about the past.
"My approach will be to work in a entirely collaborative manner with the authority, recognising that we have different responsibilities. I have no interest in exchanging formal letters with the chairman.
"I think the relationship needs to be predicated on trust and transparency."
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