Police Scotland chief constable Phil Gormley signals 'work to be done' on giving local commanders greater influence

Local police commanders need to be given a greater say in influencing decisions taken by Police Scotland at a national level, Scotland’s new chief constable Phil Gormley has told MSPs.

Gormley told the Public Audit Committee that there is “work to be done” by Police Scotland on ensuring that decisions taken at the top of the organisation heed local concerns.

It came as the president of local government umbrella body COSLA told Holyrood that a “clear, formal opportunity for locally elected members to scrutinise national policing decisions” is needed in the wake of decisions taken on the likes of stop and search and armed police.

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Former National Crime Agency director general Gormley was appearing before MSPs for the first time since succeeding Sir Stephen House as chief constable of the single force last month.

He said: “In the early conversations I have had, not within the governance group to be fair but with two or three chief executives of local authorities in the last three or four weeks, I think there is work to be done in terms of us as an organisation, Police Scotland, explaining the impact and the rationale for national decisions on local [levels].

“[That is] both directly with local authorities but also making sure that internally we’re connecting up and enabling our divisional commanders to influence national decisions as effectively as I think we need to.”

Civilian oversight body, the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), is set to complete a review of police governance by mid-March after Justice Secretary Michael Matheson acknowledged a number of incidents had “knocked confidence in policing”.

COSLA president Councillor David O’Neill has said the review provides an opportunity to “develop new arrangements which will hand some meaningful control over policing back to our communities”.

“We need greater clarity over what can and cannot be discussed and what can and cannot be held to account by locally elected members,” O’Neill told Holyrood.

“For this to happen, local policing commanders need to be more empowered to meaningfully respond to local priorities.  We also need a clear route of ‘escalation’ between the local and the national level, where local problems cannot be resolved.”

Meanwhile, Gormley told MSPs the relationship between Police Scotland and the SPA moving forward must be based on “trust and transparency”.

The early days of Vic Emery’s tenure as SPA chair were marred by claims of a power struggle with the then head of Police Scotland.

Emery’s successor Andrew Flanagan, who took over last September, acknowledged there were “difficulties in the inception of the SPA and Police Scotland about where the demarcation lines of responsibility fell” but claimed “most of that has been sorted out”.

Gormley added: “My approach will be to work collaboratively and in a complimentary manner to the police authority. In my experience that is the only way we’re going to generate light rather than heat and I have no view about the past.

“My approach going forward will be to work in an entirely collaborative manner with the authority, recognising that we have different responsibilities. I have no interest in exchanging formal letters with the chairman, I think the relationship needs to be predicated on trust and transparency.”