Police watchdogs have pledged to reveal details about what’s said at “secret meetings” after a damning report.
Dame Elish Angiolini’s independent police complaint review called for changes at the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) as part of 81 recommendations.
The SPA is tasked with holding Police Scotland to account, including investigating complaints about senior officers. But the quango has been accused of failing to be transparent.
Politicians accused SPA management of running it like a “secret society” and likened the organisation to the Kremlin.
Last November former lord advocate Dame Elish called on the SPA to “increase public confidence” by publishing more information – including key minutes of private sessions – in a review of police complaints procedures.
The oversight body, whose former chairwoman Susan Deacon quit in 2019 amid claims it was “fundamentally flawed”, said it will now implement changes within weeks.
The SPA said it would be “reviewing the minutes of private sessions with a view to publication of items as appropriate” by May.
The Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland called for an increase in taxpayer-funded bodies making minutes available to the public.
Its convener Carole Ewart said: “We welcome this initiative and review process. Currently the duty to publish minutes is seen as key to building public trust and meeting the duty to promote transparency and accountability in publicly funded services.
“As such, only that which needs to remain confidential should.”
In 2018 the SPA was criticised for quietly clearing Assistant Chief Constable Bernie Higgins in a private session
following claims he swore at colleagues and fired guns unlawfully at a practice range.
Former SPA board member Moi Ali quit the body in 2017 after she objected to plans to hold its board meetings in private.
She said: “When I joined the SPA in 2012, minutes of private sessions were published.
“What the real question here is why the SPA stopped it in the first place and why it has taken arm-twisting by Dame Elish to do it again.
“The SPA have a duty to carry out their functions in a transparent way. There are, obviously, some details that need to be redacted. But that should be the exception rather than the rule.”
Last December, former Labour government health secretary Susan Deacon warned the SPA was “joined at the hip” with Police Scotland – the force it is supposed to provide oversight on – last December. She welcomed Dame Elish’s report and called it “game changing.”
The SPA said: “The Dame Elish recommendations relate to the Complaints and Conduct Committee and a proposal is due to be discussed at the committee in May which, if approved, will be implemented by that committee.”
They added that the Complaints and Conduct Committee has a “higher proportion of business taken in private sessions” compared to other SPA committees.
