Police malaise

Here we go again, another missed opportunity with regard to the review of the Scottish Police Authority (The Scotsman, 3 March).

It seems rather naive to assume that a review and report co-written by the deputy chair of the SPA would be anything other than a missed opportunity. For the report to suggest that there were no fundamental issues with the framework or structure of the SPA is stretching credulity much too far. But the deputy chair of the SPA would say that, wouldn’t she!

How can the model used by the SPA be “fundamentally sound” when the organisation is so dysfunctional? If the model was sound then we would not be in the current position. Apparently all the SPA needs to do, according to the report, is to “refocus and refresh”. What has the SPA been doing for the past five years? Surely a properly structured and well-managed SPA would have been ensuring that its processes were fit for purpose?

That the SPA has relied upon Police Scotland for advice is disgraceful. Of course, there will be technical or operational matters that may need to be explained to provide context or improve understanding; however, that is entirely different to the provision of advice.

Is it any wonder that effective oversight of Police Scotland has been absent especially, as the report indicates, that the structures led to “blurred boundaries”.

This one factor provides the clearest evidence that the structures in place are wrong. The comments by opposition parties to this report are entirely correct; the Justice Minister really needs to use this report as evidence of a wider malaise to instigate a proper and full review of the structures of the SPA and Police Scotland.

L. W. TURNBULL Edderston Road, Peebles