THE former head of Scotland's leading crime-fighting agency has criticised the lack of accountability for the new Police Service of Scotland and called for a non-party political commission to be established to hold it to account.
Graeme Pearson, MSP and ex-chief of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, claims the new single police service requires a robust body within Holyrood to oversee its actions and decisions.
He said it is vital to ensure the police is not considered an arm of Government. The single force will be overseen by a board but he points out members of that board will be appointed on the approval of ministers, paid for by the Government and answerable to ministers.
The Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Bill, which will amalgamate the eight forces into one by April 1, 2013, is going through Stage 2 in parliament.
Concerns about lack of accountability have been raised by the Scottish Police Federation and Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (Asps).
Mr Pearson said: "The means to deliver accountability to the democratic process is missing.
"The Auditor General called it a democratic deficit. The board – populated by people chosen on approval of the minister, paid by the minister and answerable to the minister, and therefore Government – does not provide the transparency necessary in a modern democracy."
He believes the commission should be completely separate from the police service board and be comprised of MSPs able to question big decisions made by the new chief and able to link local and national concerns.
Last month Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill agreed to a number of amendments to the bill with a particular focus on strengthening the operational independence of the new chief constable.
Mr Pearson pointed out that Francoise Hollande, the new President of France, last week sacked three senior police chiefs accused of being political appointments of former president Nicolas Sarkozy. He said he did not want senior officers in Scotland to be so tarnished and that a commission would provide a buffer between ministers and the new chief.
The new amalgamated service is expected to make £88 million of cuts by 2014/15. These are due to rise to £106m in the following spending review in 2015/16. In the next three years, £50m of the cuts would come with the loss of an anticipated 2000 police staff.
The Scottish Government has pledged there will be no compulsory redundancies and to maintain its promise of an extra 1000 officers. Figures released yesterday show there are now a record number – 17,436. The latest quarterly statistics show the number of police officers rose by 7.4% or 1202 officers between March 31, 2007 and March 31, 2012.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The Bill establishes a wide range of mechanisms to ensure proper accountability for and scrutiny of policing in Scotland.
"Parliament can scrutinise all aspects of policing, and the role of Scottish Ministers, however and whenever it wishes – through, for example, the Justice Committee.
"The Bill encourages that scrutiny by giving Parliament many more formal opportunities than at present to do so."
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