Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 25 January 2018.
I have heard extracts of this morning’s committee session. I have not managed to listen to all of it, but I do not think that Ruth Davidson is correct in her characterisation of the evidence that was heard this morning. Andrew Flanagan said, for example, that the justice secretary did not request that he change his decision. What the justice secretary did was ask questions about the steps that had been taken. Andrew Flanagan also expressly said that he was not directed by the justice secretary.
As I said last week, there is a clear distinction here between, on the one hand, the operational independence of the SPA and, of course, of the police in matters that no justice secretary should intervene in and, on the other hand, the proper role of a justice secretary in making sure that due process is followed. Michael Matheson asked legitimate questions about the steps that had been taken leading up to the decision to ask the chief constable to return to work. For example, had the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner been asked whether his return to work would compromise the on-going investigation? Secondly, had the senior command been notified? We heard the acting chief constable say earlier in the week that that was not the case. Thirdly, had plans been put in place for the welfare of officers who had raised concerns?
The reason, as I heard it this morning, why Andrew Flanagan felt that he had no option but to change his decision was that he could not answer those questions about process. It is entirely legitimate, and I think that the public would have expected it, for the cabinet secretary to do what he did.
I come back finally to the point that Ruth Davidson could not address last week. If her position is that the justice secretary should not have asked those legitimate questions, is she saying that she thinks that the chief constable should have returned to work without any of those issues having been properly explained? I am prepared to bet that, if that had happened, she would have been standing up in the chamber saying how outrageous that was. In those circumstances, she might actually have been right.