THE BURNING QUESTIONS

Who, what, but most of all, why?

Police Scotland will report in a month’s time but critics have questioned if the review team is asking the right questions. So here are a few suggestions.

Which SCDEA officers were signatories to the bank accounts being run by the Special Operations Unit?

Which SCDEA officers signed off the accounts of the unit?

Which offficer ordered the incineration of the sensitive material found at the unit when its finances were exposed as chaotic and possibly criminal, and which officers knew about it?

Was the material covered by the official Protective Marking Scheme?

Was burning it contrary to standard operating procedures?

Did officers charged with burning it raise concern at the time that some of it was classified as sensitive and secret?

Were they told to burn it anyway?

Was this done before the possibility of fraud or criminality at the unit was reported to the Procurator Fiscal?

Were the five officers tasked with burning the material paid up to six hours overtime?

After buying a garden incinerator at B&Q in Paisley, and matches and petrol at a BP petrol station at Glasgow Airport, were the officers reimbursed through expenses?

Both Strathclyde and Grampian forces voiced serious concerns about how the SCDEA investigated the collapse of the unit at the time so was that internal inquiry fair-minded, rigorous and transparent?

Should the current review team ignore it and start again by speaking to officers and former officers directly involved?