Parties call on Govt to apologise
POLITICAL parties yesterday called on the SNP Government to apologise to the families affected by the M9 scandal.
They attacked the “cavalier” way the SNP disbanded Scotland’s eight legacy forces to create a single authority in 2013.
The Scottish Government was accused of failing to learn lessons from the tragedy.
Scottish Conservative community safety spokesman Russell Findlay MSP said: “Families who fought for justice have waited far too long for Police Scotland to admit criminal liability in relation to this tragedy.
“This admission is a shocking indictment of how the SNP scandalously failed to guarantee their new police force’s call handling system met basic standards..”
Lib Dem Willie Rennie MSP added: “Political decisions have consequences. This is one of the darkest.
“The Scottish Government was cavalier about its centralisation of the police, rushing it through despite all the warnings. Experienced staff were replaced with officers from the frontline who didn’t know how the call handling systems worked.
“Accepting responsibility is the very least that Police Scotland can do, given all that the families have had to endure. The Scottish Government must now do likewise.”
The Scottish Government said: “Ministers acted swiftly following the tragic events in 2015 to direct Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary to undertake an independent review of call handling in Police Scotland’s Contact, Command and Control Division.
“The review resulted in 30 recommendations for improvement and since then the Inspectorate has worked closely with Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority to implement wideranging changes, including the introduction of a single national command and control system.”