Senior civil servant ‘does not regret’ letter which rebuked police chief

A senior civil servant has said he does not regret sending a letter to Northern Ireland’s police chief warning him about a direct funding bid he made to the Prime Minister.

Hugh Widdis, permanent secretary at the Department of Justice, told MLAs that it had been his decision to send the correspondence and insisted it had not impacted relations with the PSNI.

The Police Federation NI had accused Mr Widdis of a “high-handed attempt to gag, embarrass and chastise” PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher when the letter was leaked to the media in August.

In the correspondence, the civil servant cautioned Mr Boutcher that he had acted “outside well-established financial protocols” by writing to Sir Keir Starmer making the case for more financial support.

Mr Widdis told Mr Boutcher that requests for further Government funding should only be made by Stormont’s Department of Finance following engagement with the Department of Justice.

The leaked letter suggested the police chief undermined the role of devolved Stormont ministers by bypassing them in a direct approach to No 10.

Mr Boutcher has been flagging grave concerns about the PSNI’s financial situation since he took the job last year, insisting he does not have the necessary resources to police Northern Ireland effectively.

He maintains Stormont does not get enough money to sustain public services in Northern Ireland, including the PSNI.

The police chief raised those issues in his letter to the Prime Minister.

Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie raised the issue when Mr Widdis appeared before Stormont’s Justice Committee on Thursday.

He said: “I guess you can understand the Chief Constable’s frustrations with the lack of police in what he is trying to do.

“Do you regret the letter you sent to the Chief Constable in regards to the budget and the manner it was sent?

“I understand the reasons but do you regret the way you went about it?”

Mr Widdis responded: “I don’t regret it is the straight answer Mr Beattie.

“Broadly speaking, I absolutely agree that policing, like every other part of the justice system, has been underfunded.

“I admire the chief, he is doing a great job in terms of pushing for greater funding.

“But I and the minister have to think about the system as a whole and the Executive has to think about its system as a whole.

“In relation to the specifics about the letter. As well as permanent secretary of the department, as well as making sure we run a tight ship, I am an accounting officer.

“I am personally obliged and accountable to this Assembly for the performance of the duties that I accepted when I became accounting officer.

“Sometimes accounting officers have to write to other accounting officers in relation to those duties. It is essentially business.

“I think the (Justice) minister (Naomi Long) said it was regrettable the letter came into the public domain and I would agree with that entirely.

“I don’t regret acting in order to fulfil my duty to this Assembly.”

Mr Widdis said relations between the department and the PSNI are “excellent”.

He added: “I speak to the chief regularly. Personal relations between me and him and the minister, the whole thing is absolutely as you would expect it to be and hope it to be when people collaborate to get solutions.

“The fact that I have duties as the accounting officer don’t get in the way of that at all.”

Mr Beattie asked if the distribution of the letter, which was also sent to the Prime Minister, was “wider than it should have been”.

Mr Widdis said he had been doing his duty as accounting officer.

He added: “The chief’s letter had gone to a certain distribution list and I responded.

“It is not in any negative way affecting relations between the PSNI and ourselves.”

SDLP MLA Justin McNulty asked if the letter had been approved by Ms Long before it was sent.

Mr Widdis said: “No, it was my decision to send the letter.”

He added: “It is a letter from me as accounting officer, I sent it in fulfilment of my duty as accounting officer not as permanent secretary of the department.

“It wasn’t sent by the minister. It was from me to the Chief Constable.”