NICOLA Sturgeon has said she is sympathetic to Holyrood having a greater say in the operation and oversight of Police Scotland.
The First Minister said she was “not entirely unsympathetic” to a request from the opposition parties to let MSPs appoint the next chair of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA).
The watchdog overseeing the country’s single force is currently searching for its third chair since 2013 after controversial boss Andrew Flanagan resigned amid heavy criticism from MSPs of his management style.
The SPA also lost chief executive John Foley recently after he was criticised for not being up to scratch and contributing to dysfunction within the organisation.
The Herald revealed earlier this week that the LibDem, Labour, Tory and Green justice spokespeople had written to Justice Secretary Michael Matheson urging him to delegate the choice of SPA chair to the parliament, to help restore public trust in the single force.
LibDem justice spokesman Liam McArthur raised the issue at First Minister's Question.
He said that if the next SPA chair was appointed by the parliament, not Ministers, it would recognise “our collective interest in seeing the mess that has been created sorted out".
Ms Sturgeon said: "As it happens I am not entirely unsympathetic to the case that Liam McArthur has made."
She said the appointment process was laid down in legislation but ministers would “consider whether there is a role that parliament could play” within that legal framework.
Ms McArthur also referred to the Herald’s front page story that the independent inspectorate regarded the SNP Government’s merger of British Transport Police and Police Scotland as “entirely a political decision”, without a business case or due regard to consequences.
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