Minister right to step in over chief ’s return, says SPA head
Michael Matheson’s decision to block the return to work of Police Scotland’s suspended chief constable has won backing from the same organisation he helped overrule.
Susan Deacon – the new chair of the Scottish Police Authority – threw her support behind the justice secretary’s intervention.
She said the process that led to her predecessor Andrew Flanagan agreeing to allow Phil Gormley to resume his duties had been “wanting in many, many ways”.
Mr Gormley is the subject of four misconduct investigations.
The new chair of the Scottish Police Authority has given her backing to justice secretary Michael Matheson after he intervened in the chief constable’s return to work.
Susan Deacon told MSPS on the Scottish Parliament’s justice committee that Mr Matheson would have been “failing in his duty” had he not raised concerns about the SPA’S decision – taken under her predecessor – to allow Phil Gormley to resume his duties.
The chief constable has been on leave since September and continues to receive his £214,000 salary while allegations of bullying are investigated by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc).
The SPA approved Mr Gormley’s return to work on November 7 under then chair Andrew Flanagan without consulting either the Pirc or Police Scotland.
Asked about the matter in Holyrood yesterday, Ms Deacon, a former Labour health minister, said she had found the process that had been followed to be “wanting in many, many ways”.
She said: “I’ve looked quite carefully at that particular meeting that has become the matter of considerable public attention and I found it wanting in many, many ways in terms of its process.
“And I will just add since this is also a matter of some considerable debate that had I been in the cabinet secretary’s shoes, and I have walked in these types of shoes in the past, then I would have asked questions about process as to how that decision had been made and personally I think the cabinet secretary would be failing in his duty had he not asked those questions.”
She added: “I will also say for the record that if at any stage in my tenure as chair of the SPA the processes that I follow required to be questioned in that way by a cabinet secretary then I would regard that I would have failed in my duty as chair.”
Mr Gormley is the subject of four separate Pirc investigations and faces dismissal if allegations of gross misconduct are proved.
His legal team has described the complaints against him as “vexatious and opportunistic”.
Deputy Chief Constable Iain Livingstone, who is leading Police Scotland in Mr Gormley’s absence, yesterday told MSPS he had asked for an update from Mr Flanagan after the November 7 meeting and the following day was told that “deliberations were ongoing”.
He said he was then told by Mr Flanagan on November 10 that the SPA had taken the decision to extend Mr Gormley’s leave. Mr Livingstone said he could not categorically say that no-one else in Police Scotland was aware of Mr Gormley’s proposed return but said if they had been it would have been an “extremely discourteous” breach of protocol that would have left him “extremely annoyed and disappointed”. Mr Flanagan and former SPA chief executive John Foley are due to appear before Holyrood’s audit committee tomorrow.