Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 25 November 2020
I recall that, in the 2013 parliamentary debate about the merger of Scotland’s eight police forces, my colleague John Lamont expressed his concerns not about the reforms themselves but about how the SNP intended to implement them—specifically, how local accountability could be protected, how financial savings could be delivered and how there could be much greater transparency within the system, especially if serious complaints or disciplinary issues were exposed.
That is why, at the time, the Scottish Conservatives were keen to see directly elected police commissioners and why we wanted to see a commitment to 1,000 extra police officers on the beat. We believed then, and we believe now, that policing works best when there is local accountability and when there is full transparency over how the police force operates, including in relation to the complaints system.
As Liam Kerr pointed out, Dame Elish Angiolini’s report fully exposes some fundamental flaws in the system—flaws that I believe will undermine public trust in the system unless they are quickly and properly addressed. Even if there have been some operational improvements, the report makes it abundantly clear that not nearly enough is being done to ensure that police officers will be treated fairly and given the necessary support. The report is extremely clear that, overall, there is a poor complaints system, and that is simply not acceptable.
Although the cabinet secretary appears to recognise that some things have gone wrong—specifically, that there has not been a sufficiently robust or transparent system in place—he needs to address why that is the case. Undoubtedly, he should be most concerned about the stubborn problem of racism, sexism, homophobia and other discriminatory behaviour within the force, in what Dame Elish referred to as “canteen culture”. He should also be concerned about the knock-on effect that that has had on recruitment and retention, particularly of women officers and those from ethnic minorities.
On that theme, Dame Elish singled out the Scottish Police Federation for not being as approachable as officers have a right to expect. That is something that should surely worry the cabinet secretary, too. We must realise that the job is hard enough for police officers as it is without their feeling that their professional standards are being undermined by bigotry or discrimination. I know from his previous statements in the chamber that the cabinet secretary genuinely believes that such a culture is unacceptable, but we are now 20 years on from the Macpherson report, and it is very apparent that lessons still need to learned. The cabinet secretary needs to give a strong commitment that he will do all in his power to end that ugly culture and to ensure that we make some progress.
The cabinet secretary should also think about why there has not been sufficient transparency in the system. Specifically, he should tell us whether he will adopt Dame Elish Angiolini’s recommendations that the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner should have more powers and become more accountable to the Scottish Parliament, so that there can be greater scrutiny of decision making, and that any gross misconduct hearings should be held in public. That follows the very unsatisfactory situations that have surrounded the departure of some senior officers, as discussed by Liam McArthur, on which the full facts have not been made clear.
Dame Elish has identified why there need to be legislative changes in order to address the concerns that her report identifies. She recommends that there should be much stronger relationships between the Scottish and UK Governments in order to share best practice and to learn from each other’s failings.
I will close with a comment from the current chief constable, Iain Livingstone. He said that the “core values” of the police should be
“integrity, fairness and respect and a commitment to upholding human rights.”
He is absolutely correct, but it is clear that, at present, we have a long way to go until those values can be fully delivered.
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