Call for review following return to work dispute

Calls have been made for a review of the Scottish Police Authority after the watchdog apparently ruled Phil Gormley could return to work without informing Police Scotland or the body investigating allegations against the Chief Constable.

Liberal Democrat leader Willlie Rennie made the plea after some opposition MSPS at Holyrood branded the situation a “shambles”.

Mr Rennie told BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme: “It does call into question something that we’ve been questioning for a long time, which is the whole structure of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), the centralised Police Scotland, because this is not the first of the problems that we’ve seen with Police Scotland.”

He spoke out after Justice Secretary Michael Matheson told MSPS that the SPA board unanimously decided to rescind the police chief’s period of special leave – but only told him two days later.

Phil Gormley.