Nicola Sturgeon will face demands tomorrow to put the merger of the British Transport Police and Police Scotland on hold because of the chaotic state of the police force’s leadership.
The Scottish Conservatives will use their debating time in parliament to appeal to the first minister to pause the merger plans, due for April next year.
Phil Gormley, Scotland’s chief constable, is on special leave while allegations of bullying, which he denies, are investigated. Bernard Higgins, assistant chief constable, has been suspended while investigations are completed into a series of allegations against him, including one of criminality. He denies all the claims.
The Scottish Police Authority, the watchdog, has lost both a chairman and a chief executive in the last few months and has also come in for criticism from MSPs for its poor decision-making.
The Conservatives claim it is time for the Scottish government to pause the merger. They will stress that they are not calling for the complete halt of the project, which was backed by the Scottish parliament. Liam Kerr, for the Conservatives, said: “Transport police officers have warned it will make their job harder and rail workers have warned it would put the safety of passengers and staff at risk.”
Advertisement
The Tories will use a recent statement by Nigel Goodband, the chairman of the British Transport Police Federation, to support their case. Mr Goodband said that Police Scotland itself had suggested at a recent meeting that the Scottish government’s 2019 timetable was “unrealistic”. He also pointed out that some estimates put the cost of the merger at £10,000 per member of staff.
There are still questions to be resolved over pensions, cross-border working, leadership structures and access to systems and data. Police Scotland is still coming to terms with its own structures since the merger of the eight regional forces in 2013 and is also coping with pressures on its budget.
A spokesman for the Scottish government said: “We are fully committed to ensuring that railway policing in Scotland has a strong and robust future that delivers high safety standards for passengers, staff and the rail industry.”
Ministers have come under fresh pressure over their failure to take minutes of a crucial meeting involving the justice minister on the future of Mr Gormley. The Scottish Conservatives published government advice to ministers and civil servants yesterday which, they claimed, showed that Michael Matheson should have made sure a proper record was taken of his meeting with Andrew Flanagan, then chairman of the SPA. They discussed a return to work for Mr Gormley but after the meeting the invitation was rescinded.
The Scottish government said that no formal record of the meeting was taken “as all parties were very clear at the end of the meeting on next steps”.