THE newly appointed members of the police force watchdog will gather for the first time today to begin a series of induction meetings.
Scottish Police Authority (SPA) chairman Vic Emery will greet the first 12 members of the new authority, which include senior prosecutors, criminal justice experts and policing watchdogs, at the Scottish Police College in Tulliallan.
The gathering is understood to be the first of several informal meetings ahead of an official public meeting in early December.
Mr Emery said: "We will meet together informally for the first time on Monday. This will mark the first of a series of induction meetings.
"As chair I have three early objectives for that work. First, to agree how we will go about our business as an authority. Second, to ensure the new relationships and responsibilities of the police service, authority, Government and Parliament are well understood by all. Third, to understand the big operational policing issues we are facing locally and nationally.
"The SPA will meet formally for the first time in early December. This will be the first of a pattern of visible and open meetings that we will hold around the country rather than in a single fixed location."
The 12 £300-a-day board members were named last week as Moiram Ali, Brian Barbour, Jeane Freeman, Graham Houston, David Hume, Morag McLaughlin, Paul Rooney, Ian Ross, Lisa Tennant, Iain Whyte, Robert Wilson and Douglas Yates.
They have all been appointed for four years, with room for a further two members in due course.
The SPA will hold the new Police Service of Scotland and its chief constable to account from April 1, next year.
Stephen House, formerly chief constable of Strathclyde Police, will be head of the new single force.
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 hereComments are closed on this article