Justice Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Official Report 535KB pdf

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Justice Sub-Committee on Policing (Report Back)

Agenda item 3 is feedback from the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing’s meeting of 18 May 2017. Following the verbal report, there will be an opportunity for comments or questions. I refer members to paper 3, which is a note by the clerk.

I invite Mary Fee to provide feedback on the meeting.

The Justice Sub-Committee on Policing met on 18 May 2017, when it held an evidence session on governance of the Scottish Police Authority. The sub-committee heard from Andrew Flanagan, the authority’s chair, and John Foley, the chief executive. The session was a late change to the committee’s business in response to serious governance concerns that had been raised by the Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee.

Andrew Flanagan apologised for his letter to Moi Ali and told the sub-committee that he regretted not circulating the letter from Her Majesty’s chief inspector of constabulary to board members. The chair and the chief executive answered questions from the sub-committee on governance issues. The sub-committee’s next meeting is scheduled for Thursday 25 May, when it will consider its report on governance of the Scottish Police Authority. I am happy to answer questions.

I have more of a comment than a question. I thought that it was a useful meeting. As the sub-committee’s convener, Mary Fee, has said, the purpose of the meeting was to address concerns about governance. I must say that those concerns were not allayed by anything that I heard—quite the reverse. We were told by Mr Flanagan that a copy of his letter had been emailed to Moi Ali. We subsequently learned that that had happened a quarter of an hour before our meeting commenced. It is a matter of concern to me that, although Mr Flanagan believed that he was taking appropriate action, the subsequent information about the timing of his email to Ms Ali suggested that he had not learned much at all from the incident.

John Finnie fairly sums up where we got to by the end of the meeting. It is also not entirely clear to what extent other board members feel able to comment publicly or to speak truth to power. Although we were offered reassurances in that regard, the evidence was less than convincing. Therefore, as John Finnie said, it was a useful meeting, but the concerns largely remain.

I echo those comments. I was left feeling not reassured that matters would change greatly. However, we will wait with interest to see how the situation pans out.

Yes—I think that everyone on the sub-committee shares the same concerns. Andrew Flanagan appeared to be contrite and accepted that he had been wrong in some of the decisions that he had taken, but there is a difference between accepting that you are wrong and believing that you are wrong. I must say that I came away from the meeting not fully confident that he believes that he had acted inappropriately. The sub-committee will be looking at on-going issues of governance at the SPA.

As there are no other comments, that concludes our 19th meeting in 2017. At our next meeting on 30 May, we will continue evidence taking on the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill.

Meeting closed at 11:44.