Police watchdog refused to bark

SCOTLAND’s police watchdog is refusing to publish minutes at the centre of the row over the country’s former Chief Constable.

The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) has also failed to provide an estimate of the legal fees racked up as former chief Phil Gormley fought for his job.

Mr Gormley quit in February amid multiple bullying allegations following a political row.

No record was kept of meetings as Justice Secretary Michael Matheson blocked a move by the SPA to bring Mr Gormley back from gardening leave.

The SPA refused to release draft minutes of a meeting about ending Mr Gormley’s leave, despite the quango’s chairman, Professor Susan Deacon, admitting their existence.

Writing to Holyrood’s public audit committee in February, Professor Deacon said the board met on October 31 last year ‘to review the Chief Constable’s leave arrangements’.

The quango was accused of a ‘fly-by-night’ approach by the Tories after Professor Deacon disclosed that draft minutes were produced by ‘officers with no first-hand knowledge of the discussions and were based on the then chief executive’s notes’.

But the SPA refused an FOI request for the draft minutes, stating that ‘correspondence in relation to considerations to the Chief Constable’s return’ has been ‘withheld’.

The body has failed to respond to an appeal against the refusal, and has yet to respond to an FOI request for Mr Gormley’s taxpayer-funded legal fees – made on January 31.