A SCANDAL-HIT Police Scotland Unit is under pressure to be stripped of its responsibility for handling whistleblowing complaints by officers.

MSPs and a campaigning lawyer have queried the Counter Corruption Unit’s continuing role in investigating internal complaints, fuelling calls for an outside body to be handed control.

Police officers in England who have witnessed wrongdoing can raise an issue with their own force, but they can also call a whistleblowing hotline at the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

North of the border, the Police Scotland ‘Integrity Matters’ system is run in-house by the CCU.

However, the CCU was discredited after it illegally used its spying powers against its own officers in a bungled attempt to plug media leaks.

The CCU has also been accused of persecuting officers for minor data protection breaches and some of the internal complaints are about the Unit itself.

In 2015, the Scottish Police Authority published a review of Integrity Matters that flagged up shortcomings.

It was revealed that none of the new posters for Integrity Matters provided a telephone contact number and noted that it was not a whistleblowing policy “as such.”

In parliamentary evidence in March, SPA chair Andrew Flanagan said: “There has been some resistance from Police Scotland to using the term “whistleblowing” – the chief constable can comment on that.”

Chief constable Phil Gormley said: “I am simply aware that there are a range of views on the term 'whistleblowing'. It does not offend me, but some people would say that it has a pejorative context.”

MSPs heard that 133 referrals had been made through Integrity Matters over the previous year, a number that did not impress Flanagan: “It is encouraging that there is a greater number of referrals. However, I am not sure that 130 referrals from a workforce of 22,000 necessarily reflects success.”

Gormley also revealed that he had commissioned a “comprehensive piece of work” to look outside the organisation at how staff are supported when they want to raise “issues of concern”.

However, there is support for the review to lead to far-reaching change.

A police Inspectorate report into the CCU stated that Integrity Matters "could be supplemented by an external confidential reporting function".

Aamer Anwar, a campaigning lawyer who represents officers who say they have been mistreated by the CCU, said there had to be an independent element to the process. “If there is to be confidence in whistleblowing then there must also be an independent body officers can turn to without fear. Far too many officers have had their lives destroyed for simply doing the right thing.”

Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Douglas Ross said: "There are obvious benefits to having an external body operating this kind of system, not least the additional impartiality and distance they have.

"This is something the Scottish Government should consider looking at, and something we have called for in the past.”

Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur said: "The last thing that officers and staff who wish to report wrongdoing need is to have their complaints handled by a unit that is at the heart of allegations of misconduct and has been the subject of criminal probes.

“Police officers and staff need to feel that procedures are robust and that they will be listened to."

Scottish Labour Justice spokesperson Claire Baker said: “All options must be looked at - including the potential for concerns to be heard by an independent body, as is the case in England.”

A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Work is progressing on the Police Scotland whistleblowing proposals which are currently being consulted on with staff associations as well as being tested by a reference group from both inside and outside the service.

"Police Scotland is committed to ensuring we have in place a robust process to allow staff and officers to come forward in confidence to raise issues of concern or conscience connected to conduct, criminality or integrity."