Police Chief Backed Over M9 Crash Row

Scotland's justice secretary has backed Chief Constable Sir Stephen House following the death of a couple who lay in a crashed car for three days after it was first reported to police.

Lamara Bell, 25, was critically injured in the crash off the M9 near Stirling on Sunday July 5 and died in hospital yesterday, while her partner, John Yuill, 28, died at the scene.

They were only found in the car on Wednesday, around 72 hours after the accident, despite the incident having been reported to police on the day it happened.

Justice Secretary Michael Matheson has ordered Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) to undertake an urgent review of all police call handling following the incident.

The case is also subject to an independent probe by the police investigations and review commissioner (Pirc),.

Asked whether he still has full confidence in Police Scotland Chief Constable Sir Stephen House, he told BBC Radio Scotland: Yes, he still has my confidence.''

Mr Matheson added: I think the Chief Constable has got a number of challenges which he has dealt with since coming into the post, and with the merging of our eight previous legacy forces and creating Police Scotland.

He has acknowledged that there have been mistakes made over the last couple of years including a mistake made in very recent times with this particular case, and he sought to try and address them, so I think it's important that the focus now has to be on making sure that this type of thing does not occur again and we learn the lessons from that.''

However, Scottish Labour Justice spokeswoman Elaine Murray said that Sir Stephen should be considering his position.

She told the radio station: If I were Stephen House I think I would be considering my position this morning.

However I think it's important we don't just make a scapegoat of the Chief Constable. This is more than about the management style of one individual, this is about the way in which Police Scotland is operating.''

Sir Stephen last week apologised to the relatives of the two crash victims and admitted that police had ''failed both families''.

Mr Matheson said it is hoped that HMICS will announce its findings within a matter of weeks.

He said there was no indication of any systemic failure'' in the police call handling process.

He told the BBC: Police Scotland have reviewed that process internally. They have looked at the process they have in place, there is nothing that has actually been highlighted to them that would suggest a systemic failure in the way they in which are dealing with cases.

It looks as though there has been an error made in this individual case which has then not been explained why that is the case and that is what Pirc are looking at at the present time.

There is no indication of any particular failure within their call handling system.''

He added: This call was answered within six seconds. The call centre was under great demand at that particular time. Staffing levels were adequate at that point as well but it's unclear why the person who was dealing with the call at that particular point didn't enter it onto the system.''

The couple were reported missing after visiting Loch Earn, Stirlingshire, in a blue Renault Clio.

It emerged that a member of the public contacted Police Scotland at around 11.30am on Sunday July 5 to report that they could see the vehicle down an embankment near the M9 slip road at Bannockburn.

The call was answered, but ''for reasons yet to be established'' it was not entered on to the police systems and no action was taken at the time.

The car was found when officers were called to the scene by another member of the public on Wednesday.