Matheson defends his handling
● As two more senior Police Scotland officers are suspended amid turmoil, justice secretary denies he has ‘gone missing’
among those sidelined. Two senior officers in the firearms unit, Superintendent Kirk Kinnell and Chief Inspector Bob Glass, have also been suspended after the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc) launched a misconduct probe into their conduct, under direction of the Crown Office.
The suspension of Mr Higgins emerged on Friday after a complaint was made. The chief constable is currently on “special leave” from the organisation while allegations of bullying are investigated.
Mr Matheson said: “I accept this is a challenging time, particularly for the executive team in Police Scotland.
“But what I can also say is there’s a very experienced group of individuals within the executive team in Police Scotland dealing with day-to -day policing matters.
“The reality is that even though there are challenges which the executive team are facing at the present moment, day-to-day policing will continue as it is. What is important, though, is that we make sure the command structure has the necessary support it requires. That’s why Deputy Chief Constable Iain Livingstone is presently reviewing the command structure to see if he needs to add any individuals to that to support him going forward.”
Mr Matheson said this was particularly important while the chief constable was not with the force and the assistant chief constable was suspended.
He added that Mr Livingstone will set out his review of the command structure “in the coming days”.
Mr Matheson rejected claims that he has failed to face up to the problems in the service and deal with the situation.
“No, that’s not the case at all,” he said. “When we created Police Scotland we created a process which put in place the Police Investigation Review Commissioner so that they would investigate and deal with these issues.
“There is a legal process that’s gone through because there’s statutory provision for dealing with these issues and that’s now being taken forward.”
Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr last night called on Mr Matheson to clarify “what is going on” at Police Scotland.
He said: “We cannot have a situation where the justice minister tries to deflect responsibility – the buck stops with him and he must get a grip of this crisis.”
Labour justice spokeswoman Claire Baker said there has been “crisis after crisis” at Police Scotland
“Throughout all this Matheson has been missing,” she said.
Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie called for Mr Matheson to make a Holyrood statement on the crisis.
Police Scotland has been dogged by controversy since it was formed in 2013.
Its inaugural chief constable, Sir Stephen House, quit after a series of problems, including arming of patrol officers and centralisation of call centres.
Its watchdog body, the Scottish Police Authority, has also been embroiled in problems, with chairman Andrew Flanagan forced to quit earlier this year, while chief executive John Foley retired early. An independent probe is being carried out into seven Police Scotland officers amid claims they obtained communications data without judicial permission while trying to identify a journalist’s sources in the investigation into the death of Emma Caldwell.