Inside Justice

Police independence from ministers is debatable, argues Chris Marshall

Throughout the troubled birth and prolonged early teething troubles of Police Scotland, government ministers have been keen to assert the force’s operational independence.

It is an idea that is based in law – and perhaps also a useful get-out for politicians facing difficult questions about the state of Scottish policing. But a service that receives more than £1 billion in public money each year can never be fully autonomous.

Indeed in the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) – the organisation charged with holding the chief constable to account – the Scottish Government has been stealthily increasing its influence.

Last week the SPA announced Kenneth Hogg would become its new chief officer on a 12-month secondment from the Scottish Government. Mr Hogg, a career civil servant who will earn upwards of £105,000 in his new role, will have his salary paid by the SPA during the secondment.

He replaces John Foley who had been under pressure since a report published earlier this year by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland raised concerns about his leadership of the organisation and described key relationships as “dysfunctional”.

Mr Hogg becomes the third government official seconded to the SPA, joining Stephen Jones, director of planning, and Catherine Macintyre, a strategy, policy and performance officer, who has been there since 2012.

Critics claim the secondments are part of a co-ordinated attempt by the civil service to take control of an organisation which has proved itself spectacularly ill-equipped for the job it was set up to do – help manage the police budget and ask questions of senior officers.

The Scottish Government has also recently finished interviewing candidates to chair the SPA board. Ministers resisted calls for the Scottish Parliament to be involved in the appointment process, although they did make a concession by allowing Labour MSP Mary Fee, convener of Holyrood’s justice sub-committee on policing, to join the selection panel.

The current incumbent, Andrew Flanagan, announced his decision to step aside in June following a bullying row involving former board member Moi Ali.

While Mr Flanagan pledged to stay in post until his successor was found, no-one really expected that process to take four months.

Such was the level of political pressure on Mr Flanagan, that two separate Holyrood committees expressed disquiet about his continued employment.

Yet months later he continues to limp on in post while the chief constable he helped appoint, Phil Gormley, is investigated over a number of bullying allegations.

During the SPA public board meeting in Glasgow yesterday, an e-mailed question from a member of the public asked whether the secondment of Mr Hogg was a “conflict of interest”. Choosing not to pass the question to any of his fellow board members, Mr Flanagan said his new colleague had made it clear at the interview that his “loyalties” would lie with the SPA for the next 12 months.

Mr Flanagan said the board was “satisfied” this was the case. End of discussion, an answer which more or less summed up the SPA to date.

A supine SPA afraid of asking difficult questions suits no-one – not the public, not police officers.

No-one, perhaps, except the Scottish Government.