Complaint lodged against new Police Scotland chief

Jo Farrell is the first female chief constable of Police Scotland

The most senior civilian member of the executive team at Police Scotland has lodged a grievance against the force's new Chief Constable, Jo Farrell.

David Page is the deputy chief officer at Police Scotland, with responsibility for corporate support.

It is understood he made the complaint against the chief constable within weeks of her arrival last October and is currently on sick leave.

Mr Page worked in the financial sector before joining the force in 2016.

His complaint against Ms Farrell is being dealt with by the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), the body which oversees and governs the force.

• Police Scotland's new chief constable takes up post

The SPA has not yet either upheld or dismissed the complaint, and has refused to comment.

Mr Page began his career with the Army and spent 10 years in military intelligence before working in Scotland's financial sector for businesses including Standard Life and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

When he joined Police Scotland as its deputy chief officer in 2016, he became its most senior civilian member of staff, in charge of areas including finance and people and development.

Last year he played a prominent public role when the force was arguing for its budget to be increased.

David Page previously told Holyrood's justice committee that police cuts would lead to a "huge amount of pain and a huge amount of stress and pressure" for staff and officers

Ms Farrell joined from Durham Constabulary, which she had led since 2019. She was previously assistant chief constable at Northumbria Police.

She is the first woman to lead Police Scotland.

In November she apologised for an "error of judgement" after it emerged that a police officer drove her home to England when her train was cancelled.

She was driven about 120 miles from Edinburgh to Northumberland during Storm Babet on 20 October.

She had started in the role of Scotland's top police officer just 11 days earlier.

It was reported that she was accompanied by the chief finance officer for Durham Constabulary, Gary Ridley.

A Durham Constabulary spokesman confirmed that "an experienced member of staff attended Police Scotland to advise the chief constable about finances and resources".

Police Scotland said the passenger was dropped off a further 15 miles south in Gateshead, Tyneside.

While Jo Farrell is having a very bumpy start in her new role, no-one is suggesting her job is under threat.

Any outsider taking charge of such a high-profile organisation is bound to ruffle some feathers and, within the force, Ms Farrell is said to have supporters as well as detractors.

Her predecessor, Sir Iain Livingstone, was credited with steadying the ship after the premature departure of Police Scotland's first two chief constables, Sir Stephen House and Phil Gormley.

Having appointed Ms Farrell, the SPA will be hoping for a similar period of calm as soon as possible.

Scottish Conservative justice spokesman Russell Findlay said Police Scotland had often been accused of lacking transparency.

He added: "All public bodies have a duty to be candid about such important issues and I would urge ministers, Police Scotland and the SPA to come clean about exactly what is going on."

And Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesman Liam McArthur said: "This grievance must be swiftly resolved so that the senior leadership team are all pulling in the same direction."