Police boss must go

THE position of Andrew Flanagan, chairman of the embattled Scottish Police Authority (SPA), is untenable and yet he intends to cling on.

Members of Holyrood’s justice subcommittee say his evidence to them is inadequate and they have no confidence in his leadership.

That alone should see his time as the head of the pivotal body charged with oversight of struggling Police Scotland ended. But even with a second committee weighing in – the public audit committee has ‘serious concerns’ about his leadership – Mr Flanagan declares: ‘I remain focused on building a broad consensus around my continuing leadership of the SPA.’

Justice in this country is in crisis. The SNP’s soft-touch agenda has put criminals and not victims at the heart of the system.

Police Scotland is struggling with growing demand and shrinking resources. Public faith in the force’s ability to keep our streets safe has been rocked. And now we find the police watchdog is headed by a man whose credibility is in tatters but who is defying calls from Holyrood for him to go.

Over to Justice Secretary Michael Matheson, too long the invisible man of Nicola Sturgeon’s Cabinet. His usual ploy of hiding will not wash. The mechanism is there and for the good of policing, he must act decisively and swiftly to terminate Mr Flanagan’s unhappy tenure.