SNP has ‘something to hide’ as no minutes taken during talks on Gormley
THE Scottish Government has claimed no minutes were taken of the Justice Secretary’s hotly disputed meeting about the future of Scotland’s Chief Constable.
Just hours after Michael Matheson offered to release any record of his meeting with the head of Police Scotland’s oversight body, his officials said no minutes existed after all.
Given the gravity of the discussion, the Scottish Tories said it looked like the SNP Government had “something to hide”.
The row centres on Chief Constable Phil Gormley, who has been on special leave since September, when his fellow senior officers accused him of bullying and misconduct.
On November 7, the board of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), which oversees the force, agreed unanimously that Mr Gormley could return to work, despite an ongoing bullying probe.
On November 9, the day before Mr Gormley was due back on duty, the then SPA chair, Andrew Flanagan, told Mr Matheson of the SPA’s decision.
Mr Matheson urged him to “reconsider” given the the decision had not been cleared with the independent investigators and not even the Deputy Chief Constable had been told.
Mr Gormley’s lawyers have since claimed Mr Matheson exceeded his powers with this intervention, but the Justice Secretary insists he only asked the SPA to look again at a flawed decision, and he was concerned about the process, not the decision itself.
Asked on BBC Radio Scotland who else was present at his meeting with Mr Flanagan, Mr Matheson said: “There were civil servants present with me during the course of the meeting.” He added: “Any details that there are of the meeting, I’m happy for that.”
However, when asked to supply the minutes of the November 9 meeting, the Scottish Government’s Justice department said: “There there was no minutes taken.”