AN increasingly frantic blame game has broken out at the top of Scotland’s justice system, one of the country’s most senior former officers has claimed.
Graeme Pearson, who headed the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency before a term as a Labour MSP, said frontline cops deserved better from their squabbling bosses.
Police Scotland and its oversight body, the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), have been mired in controversy in recent months, with a series of high profile departures.
The SPA chair and chief executive both quit after criticism from MSPs, while Chief Constable Phil Gormley has been on special leave since September over a bullying investigation.
Justice Secretary Michael Matheson is also under fire after intervening over an SPA board decision to reinstate Mr Gormley in November, leading to the SPA reversing its position.
Mr Pearson told The Herald: “It seems to me those at the top of Government, the SPA and Police Scotland are in a shambles, as each tries to ensure they are not holding the ‘parcel’ when the music stops on this affair.
“There is now an unseemly scrabble to hold onto power and influence by each individual in that sphere of government known as Justice.
“All of these manoeuvres are conducted at substantial cost to the public purse whilst ignoring the key job at hand, policing the nation effectively.
“I think the men and women delivering the service on our streets deserve better.”
Mr Pearson also criticised acting Chief Constable Iain Livingstone for criticising the SPA in an interview with Holyrood magazine this week.
He said he should refrained “from entering the political arena with his thoughts” and “would have done better to produce his concerns at a public meeting of the SPA or, if denied that, the Scottish Parliamentary subcommittee on Policing to put the record straight.”
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel