THE new head of Police Scotland’s oversight body has blamed her predecessor and backed the Justice Secretary in the row over reinstating the country’s absentee Chief Constable.
Susan Deacon, chair of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) since December, told MSPs that a key decision under former chair Andrew Flanagan was “wanting in many, many ways”.
A former Labour Health minister, Professor Deacon also said she would have done the same as Justice Secretary Michael Matheson when he questioned a flawed SPA decision.
In November, Mr Matheson asked the SPA board to “reconsider” after it agreed to allow Chief Constable Phil Gormley to return to duty despite allegations of bullying against him.
After Mr Matheson intervened - unlawfully, according to Mr Gormley’s lawyer - the SPA reversed its decision and Mr Gormley remains on the “special leave” he began in September.
It emerged the SPA had not consulted the watchdog investigating the alleged bullying, or ensured the welfare of staff who had complained about him would be protected.
Prof Deacon and acting Chief Constable Iain Livingstone gave evidence to Holyrood’s justice committee about the state of Police Scotland and the SPA on Tuesday.
Mr Livingstone revealed Mr Flanagan had kept him in the dark about the SPA’s plan to reinstate Mr Gormley, merely texting him afterwards that “deliberations were ongoing”.
Mr Livingstone said that after the SPA reversed its decision, Mr Flanagan told him the SPA had extended Mr Gormley’s leave, but omitted any mention of the dramatic U-turn.
He said his advice and views were "never sought", adding: "I wasn't told there had been a decision, a reconsideration and then another decision.”
Prof Deacon said she was so concerned about how the SPA board decided to bring back Mr Gormley that she told board members on her very first day at work that things would be handled differently “under my watch”.
She told MSPs: “I've looked quite carefully at that particular meeting… and I found it wanting in many, many ways in terms of its process.
"Had I been in the cabinet secretary's shoes, and I have walked in these types of shoes in the past, then I would have asked questions…. as to how that decision had been made.
“Personally, I think the Cabinet Secretary would be failing in his duty had he not asked those questions.
“I will also say for the record that if at any stage in my tenure as chair of the SPA the processes that I follow required to be questioned in that way by a Cabinet Secretary then I would regard that I would have failed in my duty as chair."
Mr Flanagan and former SPA chief executive are due to give their side of the story to MSPs on Holyrood’s public audit committee on Thursday.
Prof Deacon said it would take “many months” for the SPA to be operating at full-speed.
Scottish LibDem MSP Liam McArthur said it had been a “spectacular error” by Mr Flanagan not to tell the acting chief constable about the plan to bring back Mr Gormley.
He said: "To cut the acting Chief Constable out of the loop on whether his boss was returning imminently was a spectacular error of judgement on the part of the former Chair of the SPA.
“Were he and his colleagues expecting Iain Livingstone to simply arrive at work the next morning to find his chair was taken and the old nameplate dusted down?
"Assurances that this is all in the past are all very well but we’ve been here before. It seems these problems are been hardwired into the system. Unless the flawed structures are addressed, the SNP Government is setting bosses up for further failures in the future. Officers and staff, as well as the wider public deserve better.”
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