MSPs blast chairman of police watchdog

SCOTLAND’S police watchdog is to be the subject of a damning report by a powerful Holyrood committee.

MSPs yesterday criticised Scottish Police Authority (SPA) chairman Andrew Flanagan over the evidence he gave to the justice sub-committee on policing last week.

Mr Flanagan said he was too busy with other jobs outside the SPA to sort the chaos at the quango which has been compared to the Kremlin, and issued an apology to a whistleblower who quit, claiming he had bullied her.

But he clung to his job, despite intense pressure from MSPs.

Mr Flanagan, whose allegedly ‘inappropriate’ conduct has also been questioned by Holyrood’s public audit committee, is accused of effectively bullying SPA board member Moi Ali out of her job, which he denies.

Holyrood sources told the Mail the justice subcommittee on policing will publish a bombshell report on governance of the SPA by the end of the week and has vowed to scrutinise the way it is being run.

Yesterday, MSPs on the justice sub-committee on policing made clear they were unconvinced by Mr Flanagan’s performance last week.

Green MSP John Finnie said he was concerned that Mr Flanagan’s apology to Miss Ali was emailed to her only shortly before the hearing began last Thursday. It followed her threat of legal action.

The MSP said his concerns about the SPA chairman ‘were not allayed by anything I heard’.

Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur questioned ‘the extent to which other [SPA] board members are able to either speak publicly or speak truth to power’.

Convener Mary Fee, a Labour MSP, said: ‘While he [Mr Flanagan] accepted he had been wrong, there is a difference between accepting you are wrong and believing you are wrong.’

Last night, Scottish Tory justice spokesman Douglas Ross said: ‘The credibility of the SPA and Police Scotland is now severely under threat by the performance of Andrew Flanagan.

‘It’s seems unimaginable that the Scottish Government could continue to have full faith in him to continue in post.’

Holyrood’s justice subcommittee on policing will meet tomorrow to discuss its report on governance at the SPA, at the same time as the SPA board holds a public meeting in Clydebank.

An SPA spokesman said: ‘Andrew Flanagan has previously made clear that he had given these issues considerable thought before he appeared at the committee.

‘His letter of apology to Moi was unreserved and unqualified and, given the public interest, he also made sure that he had discussed [the letter] with the rest of the board before it was sent.

‘On Thursday, he will be recommending early changes to SPA governance that would see committees being held in public, papers for both board and committees published well in advance, and nominations sought from within the board for a deputy chair to be appointed.’

‘Credibility of SPA is under threat’