SDLP calls for urgent and fundamental change at HET | Latest Newry News, Newry Sport and Newry Business for Newry City

SDLP calls for urgent and fundamental change at HET

SDLP Assembly Member Dominic Bradley MLA, a former member of the Policing Board, has said the party will insist on fundamental change at the HET following the damning HMIC report into its operations.

Bradley said it was also essential that the Chief Constable accept full responsibility for the PSNI’s failure to properly oversee and audit the work of the HMIC since its establishment in 2005.

The call comes after the Policing Board unanimously expressed no confidence in the leadership of the HET and called for the fundamental reform of the organisation in accordance with the recommendations in the HMIC report.

Bradley told Newry Times, “The SDLP will continue to challenge the Chief Constable to accept responsibility for the serious failures in audit and oversight of the HET. This was an avoidable crisis. In her report Professor Lundy highlighted the very clear differences in approach to the deaths where the state had been involved, and in particular soldiers.

“Had the Chief Constable taken Prof Lundy’s work seriously rather than causally dismissing it we would have avoided having to commission the HMIC and the subsequent fall out from their report.

“By ignoring Prof Lundy’s work the Chief Constable has caused many victims renewed stress and further upset. Further, he has also damaged his own reputation and that of the PSNI.

Bradley added, “It is essential in the weeks and months ahead that the Chief Constable demonstrates that he is determined never to allow organisational bias to get in the way of open and honest scrutiny by independent scholars and others.”

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Posted by on Jul 15 2013. Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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