Scottish Party Leaders Blast Police Chief

Opposition politicians have rounded on Chief Constable Sir Stephen House and senior Police Scotland management in the wake of a critical report into the force's use of stop and search.

Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie told the Scottish Police Federation (SPF) his party no longer had confidence in Sir Stephen House and called on him to change his ways'' or go.

Speaking at the SPF's annual conference, Mr Rennie said politicians had too often'' been told one thing by the force's leadership on a list of controversial issues including stop and search, armed police and targets only to discover they wereuntrue''.

Labour leader Jim Murphy and Conservative leader Ruth Davidson stopped short of calling for the chief constable's departure but expressed concerns about the leadership and oversight of the force.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon insisted she still has confidence in Sir Stephen but added that no chief constable should be a law unto themselves''.

The event at the Trump Turnberry Resort in South Ayrshire came after a report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) uncovered a lack of consistency on stop and search across Scotland and concluded that it had no confidence in the force's data on the practice.

The report said frontline officers are still under the impression that volume targets exist for stop and search and highlighted that 83 consensual searches of children aged 11 or under were carried out between June 23 and December 31 last year after the policy was scrapped, and not 18 as MSPs have been told.

A member of the audience used a footballing metaphor to ask whether Team Police Scotland'' should expect a new manager after aseries of disappointing results''.

Ms Sturgeon said: I have confidence in the chief constable and I think the police should have confidence in the chief constable, and more importantly than that I think the public should.

But, and this is a very open but that I'm going to say, no chief constable is or ever can be allowed to be a law unto themselves.''

Asked whether she was suggesting that Sir Stephen had become a law unto himself, she said: No, I'm not suggesting that.''

Ms Sturgeon said that while she did not agree with her political opponents about a lack of accountability in the force, she recognised there were concerns.

The First Minister said: We've got to respond to that, and that has to start with the chief constable so yes, I have confidence in the chief constable but any chief constable has to not just be accountable in theory but demonstrate that accountability in practice as well.''

Asked whether he had confidence in Sir Stephen, Mr Rennie said: The system is clearly broken. We don't have confidence in the chief constable.

It's difficult, in the list of things that I read out earlier on, to have confidence in him.

If he doesn't restore that confidence, if he doesn't change his way, then he's going to have to change his job because he can't carry on like this.''

Ms Davidson insisted she was not calling for Sir Stephen's head'' but added:If a leader cannot take the people that he serves along with him when changes are made, if a leader makes policies that people find it difficult to support... then I think that there are questions about the leadership of that individual.

He was given an incredibly difficult job and a very short time frame to do it, and he had to make some tough decisions.

However that doesn't take away the incumbency upon him to take people with him on that journey ... and I worry, I genuinely worry, that some of the issues that have been raised in the transformation of Police Scotland has eroded the trust that officers have in the leadership and has eroded the trust that the public has for Police Scotland.''

Picking up on the football analogy, Mr Murphy said: The difference in football is that you'd often have a strong board. I just worry that the SPA (Scottish Police Authority) just isn't strong enough.

I think before you came to any other decisions, and I'm not calling for anything in terms of any individual, I think you could strengthen the governance around Police Scotland and have stronger accountability, not by us by micromanaging but by a board that has a power and personality.

I'm not going to call for his head, because I judge him by results, the only advice I would give is that he should do more of his talking on the pitch.''