THE relationship between Scotland’s top police officer and the oversight body supposed to hold him to account was “too close for comfort”, newly released emails have suggested.

They show Chief Constable Phil Gormley made changes to a press release drawn up by the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) despite being on special leave amid a bullying probe.

The Chief Constable is supposed to answer to the SPA, not it to him.

The emails were revealed by Holyrood’s Public Audit Committee, which is looking at the SPA, after being sent them by Mr Gormley’s lawyer, David Morgan of Burness Paull.

Mr Morgan has claimed SNP Justice Secretary Michael Matheson acted unlawfully when he intervened after the SPA board agreed on November 7 to allow Mr Gormley to return to duty.

Mr Matheson last week denied this, saying he merely asked the SPA to “reconsider” its decision after its then chair, Andrew Flanagan, first told him about it on November 9.

Mr Matheson said the underlying process was “completely unacceptable” as the SPA failed to consult the independent investigator looking into three bullying and misconduct claims against Mr Gormley; failed to prove the complainers would be protected on his return; and even failed to inform the deputy Chief Constable, Iain Livingstone, of the plan.

Dated November 9, the emails were written between roughly 1 and 2pm, while Mr Flanagan was giving evidence to a separate Holyrood committee.

Mr Flanagan had told Mr Matheson of Mr Gormley’s planned return just before he went into the committee, then met him again afterwards, by which time Mr Matheson had consulted with his civil servants about the SPA’s decision-making.

At 1.12pm, John McCroskie, the SPA’s “Director of Communications and Relationships”, sent Mr Morgan a draft copy of the SPA’s planned press release about Mr Gormley’s return.

Two minutes later, Mr Morgan replied: “Thanks John - safely received. I’ll take Phil’s instructions and get back to you asap.”

Four minutes later, Mr McCroskie emailed Mr Morgan back, saying: “Many thanks and sorry for the delay in first attempt not getting through to you. Andrew [Flanagan] is now in the Parliamentary Committee until 2pm after which he is hoping to make key further calls before this can be announced. If the CC [Chief Constable] has any comments I can discuss them with Nicola Marchant [SPA deputy chair] between now and then.”

At 1.34pm, Mr Morgan sent Mr McCroskie an amended version of the press release.

Mr Morgan wrote: “Thanks John - that’s great. I’ve sent this on to Phil and we just have a few suggested changes, highlighted in the revised text, which I hope is not controversial”.

The changes includes deleting the words “and fit” from the original release, which said Mr Gormley was “ready and fit to return to work”, so that it now read “ready to return to work”.

Mr Gormley also inserted a new sentence: “Mr Gormley welcomes the Board’s decision and looks forward to resuming full operational duties”.

Mr Gormley also asked to be referred to as Chief Constable not “he” in the release.

Mr McCroskie replied at 2.03pm: “Thank you David. I don’t have any issues with those suggested changes and will advise that onwards to Nicola (and Andrew when out of Committee) and then confirm. My guidance was that timing would be later this afternoon but I suspect that Andrew will want to update directly once he has this commitment out of way.”

Contrary to Mr Matheson's account, the press release said the welfare of staff involved in the bullying probe would be supported. It was never issued.

When Mr Flanagan resumed his meeting with Mr Matheson, the Justice Secretary told him he had no confidence in the decision to reinstate Mr Gormley and the SPA reversed it the following day - Mr Gormley remains on the special leave he started on September 8.

LibDem justice spokesman Liam McArthur said: “This saga serves as yet further proof that the few individuals at the top of the SNP's centralised, secretive policing structure are all too close for comfort.

"Power is heavily concentrated in the hands of just a handful of people at the very top and that needs to change.

“It is also time for the police complaints body PIRC to tell us if they need extra resources to get the investigation into Phil Gormley finished so that all sides know where they stand."

The Public Audit committee also released a letter from top civil servant Paul Johnson, the Scottish Government’s director-general of education, communities and justice.

This gave an account of the meeting between Mr Flanagan and Mr Matheson.

However it failed to mention a meeting Mr Johnson had with Mr Gormley on November 30, a matter which was only revealed on Sunday by the Herald’s sister paper, the Sunday Herald.

Mr Matheson is under pressure to explain the Johnson-Gormley meeting.

The SPA declined to comment.