SCOTTISH Police Authority chair Andrew Flanagan is under fresh pressure to resign after a Holyrood committee accused him of “unacceptable” and “inappropriate” behaviour over a watchdog secrecy row.
In a letter to Justice Secretary Michael Matheson, the cross-party Public Audit committee expressed “very serious” concerns about SPA governance and Mr Flanagan’s treatment of a former board member.
The Scottish Government also failed to defend Mr Flanagan after refusing to say whether the Justice Secretary wanted the chair to stay in post.
The developments come after the Conservatives called on Mr Flanagan to quit and two former SPA board members questioned his suitability for the chairman’s role.
THE HERALD'S SPA EXCLUSIVES
The SPA was set up to provide oversight of Police Scotland, but the watchdog’s own performance has been criticised recently.
As part of Mr Flanagan’s governance review of the SPA, the body controversially opted to move to private committee meetings, as well as holding back publication of board papers until the day of the meeting.
Moi Ali, at that point a board member, raised objections to the recommendations in public session, but was sent a critical private letter by Flanagan afterwards.
He expressed his “dismay” at her stance and suggested it would not be fair for her to continue attending committees. She quit weeks later, triggering a huge row.
Flanagan was also criticised for not passing on a stinging letter by Derek Penman, the HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS), to fellow board colleagues on the private committee plan.
Holyrood’s Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny (PAPLS) committee has since held evidence sessions, at which Flanagan and other senior SPA figures were quizzed by MSPs.
Asked at a committee meeting on Thursday if Mr Flanagan was “fit to continue” as SPA chair, Ms Ali said: “I’m afraid I don’t. He’s actually not fit to continue on any public board, as he clearly doesn’t observe public sector values.”
Another former SPA board member, Brian Barbour, said at the same session: “The story that Moi Ali has given here makes me question his suitability for the role.”
Asked yesterday if Mr Matheson wanted Mr Flanagan to stay in post, the Scottish Government dodged the question and did not mention the chair by name:
"The Committee and stakeholders have raised issues of substance that the Cabinet Secretary expects SPA to address, and they will have an opportunity to do so at next week’s Justice sub-committee. It must ensure it is doing all that can be done, which is why Mr Matheson has asked HMICS to bring forward part of its planned statutory inspection into the operation of the Authority.”
The PAPLS Committee letter to Matheson, which is in the name of acting convener Jackie Baillie, has put Flanagan in an even more precarious position.
“We consider that the chair of the SPA board, Mr Andrew Flanagan, would appear to have behaved inappropriately on occasion and in a manner not in keeping with relevant Scottish Government guidance,” Ms Baillie wrote.
On the circumstances of Ms Ali’s resignation, she continued: “We have not seen anything in the evidence presented to us to suggest that Ms Ali did anything to breach the principles of collective responsibility. Rather, it appears to us that Mr Flanagan treated Ms Ali in an inappropriate manner, to the degree that she felt obliged to resign from the board.”
The letter also addressed Mr Flanagan’s failure to pass on the HMICS letter:
“We consider this decision to be unacceptable. The decision is even harder to understand as the letter also formally confirmed that Mr Penman intended to undertake a statutory inspection of the SPA, an announcement of supreme importance to members of the board.”
The Committee letter also noted that the SPA was “male-dominated” and raised the question about Mr Flanagan’s appraisal.
Ms Ali said of the Committee letter: “The letter sends a very clear statement of what the Justice Secretary should do, if Andrew Flanagan does not do the decent thing and resign.”
Mr Flanagan was appointed by the Scottish Government.
Douglas Ross MSP, the shadow justice secretary for the Tories, said: “It’s clear that Andrew Flanagan’s time is up. We need to restore faith in the SPA and it seems now that can only be achieved if the Chair is replaced.”
Asked if Mr Flanagan would resign, an SPA spokesperson said: “We've got nothing further to add to the comments the Chair made to the PAPLS committee on 20 April.”
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