Appointing a temporary chief constable to lead the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) risks leaving the force exposed to significant legal challenges, the chair of the Northern Ireland Policing Board has told MPs.
During an appearance before the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Deirdre Toner said the board is operating within a “difficult political backdrop” with no sitting Stormont Assembly and no minister for justice.
The committee also heard that deputy chief constable Mark Hamilton, who recently underwent a medical procedure, is currently not working full-time but is still able to lead the force.
The PSNI has been rocked by a series of recent controversies including a significant data breach and a critical High Court ruling around the disciplining of two junior officers, which led to Simon Byrne resigning as chief constable.
Mr Hamilton has since assumed Mr Byrne’s responsibilities, although the Police Federation for Northern Ireland has passed a vote of no confidence in his leadership.
Representatives of the policing board, the oversight body for the PSNI, answered questions on the leadership of the PSNI when the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee held a hearing at Stormont.
Ms Toner said the board had considered legal advice on options open to them following the resignation of Mr Byrne, to maintain the operational effectiveness of the PSNI.
“The legislative framework that the board had been working with does not provide for the current environment where we do not have an Assembly or a minister for justice,” Ms Toner said.
“It is fair to say that the matters we have been grappling with have been far from straightforward.”
She said the board considered legal advice on a range of options including the appointment of an interim chief constable, either from within or outside the service, but this option was “simply not one that was open to us”.
“The office of chief constable is a significant one, with significant powers and responsibilities. The legal framework for appointing a person into that office is clear and we simply did not have the power to do it,” Ms Toner said.
“Had we chosen to do so we would have left any decisions taken by that person open to significant challenge.”
Ms Toner said the board was working at pace to expedite the recruitment of a permanent chief constable.
“We are making decisions against a difficult political backdrop in the absence of ministers to ensure the police service continues to function in a robust and legal manner.”
DUP committee member Carla Lockhart asked the board members if they believed that the credibility of the oversight body was in tatters.
Vice-chair Edgar Jardine replied: “I think the credibility of the board would have been damaged more if we had strayed from the constraints within the legislation in which we had to work.”
Ms Lockhart said she understood “there is clear legal advice” from the Department of Justice around the appointment of an external figurehead to the organisation and asked if the board had considered this.
Ms Toner said there has been “a lot of commentary around how it should be easy to just slot someone in either acting up within the service or bringing in someone from outside”.
“Our legal advice is that it’s not possible to appoint someone into the office of chief constable, it’s a high office and you can’t just put someone in without going through the proper appointments process,” Ms Toner said.
Asked whether Mr Hamilton is currently in charge of the PSNI, Ms Toner said: “He’s not working in the office full-time, but when it’s necessary for him to invoke his section 34 powers he is giving those authorities.”
Committee chair Simon Hoare said he was not “seized with a sense of urgency” from the board members about restoring stability to the leadership of the PSNI.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to be a little bit high risk, seize it to drive the agenda forward, to deliver confidence and stability,” he said. – PA Wire