Police Scotland Chief Constable Sir Stephen House has defended the single force after a former SNP leader called for it to be broken up.
In a statement issued with Vic Emery, chairman of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), Sir Stephen hit back at Gordon Wilson’s claims that the single police force created in 2013 suffers from “delusions of grandeur” and should be federalised.
The joint statement prompted a furious response from the Liberal Democrats, who accused the Chief Constable and the SPA, the body responsible for holding the force to account, of acting as a “united mouthpiece” for the Scottish Government.
Mr Emery and Sir Stephen said Police Scotland had delivered “an end to the postcode lotteries” of policing in areas such as domestic abuse and child protection and argued that policing in Scotland “has never been the subject of more scrutiny”.
Liberal Democrat justice spokeswoman Alison McInnes described the joint statement as “astonishing” and said it indicated that the force and the SPA were “unwilling to learn lessons”.
Labour’s Graeme Pearson said Police Scotland was in a “mess”.
