Relocation Relocation Aberration: Five-figure flit fees under scrutiny

ONE of Scotland’s top police officers was given a tax-free £50,000 relocation payment by her bosses – to move further away from her work.

Deputy Chief Constable Rose Fitzpatrick, 57, was handed two relocation packages worth £67,000 after moving to Scotland from London to help run Police Scotland in 2012.

DCC Fitzpatrick – in charge of local policing across the country – first moved to Stirling just 13 miles and a half hour commute from Police Scotland’s Tulliallan HQ with her husband Phil Carson.

But in 2016, the couple moved further away from Police Scotland’s headquarters to the Stockbridge neighbourhood in Edinburgh, which is around 30 miles away and an hour’s drive from Tulliallan.

After renting a flat for just over six months, the couple paid £575,000 for a four-bedroom apartment last February – nearly five years after DCC Fitzpatrick joined the force.

The couple are thought to have sold their home near London at the same time.

Despite the length of time since joining, the Scottish Police Authority – which employs all of Scotland’s senior officers – sanctioned a further relocation payment of £49,000 to DCC Fitzpatrick for the move to Edinburgh.

Former police officer and ex Labour justice spokesman Graeme Pearson said: “I find these payments a bit strange and something rank and file officers will find unusual and startling in a service short on money.

“To get the cash payments while moving further away from where she works makes the sizeable payments even stranger.

“It is indicative of a broader problem in modern policing in Scotland – and other public bodies – where ordinary officers feel a discord between what they are paid and what their superior officers get.”

On her husband Phil’s public social media page, the former senior officer – who quit policing to concentrate on his dream of becoming a fencing instructor which he has coached since 1986 – documents their move to the capital as well as updates on his fencing activities. A former police officer with the City of London force, he is an expert fencer who registered a fencing school at couple’s Stirling home in 2014.

The Scot, 52, had been working north of the Border between 2010 and 2012 after he was seconded to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland as an inspection manager from the London force.

He attended meetings of the accounts commission at Audit Scotland’s Edinburgh HQ looking at best value in Scottish policing.

DCC Fitzpatrick’s relocation payments were criticised by that same body earlier this month.

Audit Scotland’s scathing report into Scottish Police Authority accounts unearthed a number of concerns, including her relocation payments.

A spokesman for Police Scotland said: “Audit Scotland has made it clear that DCC Fitzpatrick acted in accordance with the terms of her appointment and that she at all times complied fully with the requirements of the Scottish Police Authority.”

But the SPA insisted the relocation payments were fair and the tax that should have been paid was now settled.

They said: “Payments were made in line with the terms of DCC Fitzpatrick’s appointment and regulations.

We accept that this is an area where more can be done to ensure we achieve best value.”