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00:00Yeah, I mean, I think our local politicians, they have got off the hook on this one because
00:05they're clearly not happy that the Chief Constable has taken this step, but I welcome the fact
00:12that he has, and I hope that it brings some much-needed money in to pay us an idea and
00:19enable us to grow as an organisation.
00:21Well, the newsletter was the first newspaper to break the story about the letter from the
00:25Chief Constable to the Prime Minister, and then that was followed by a letter which was
00:29then leaked from the Permanent Secretary of the Department of Justice to the Chief
00:34Constable, basically slapping him down for having written to the Prime Minister.
00:45What was the reaction among PS&I officers to the way the justice system and the Justice
00:51Minister responded to the Chief Constable?
00:55I think at first instance, the letter, when I first saw the letter, I was annoyed, I was
01:02astounded that what was in the letter was actually committed to the paper, really, and
01:08it had been shared with such a wide audience as well, so I mean, much as the Justice Minister
01:14came out to say it was private correspondence, there was nothing private about that letter
01:17whatsoever, and I'm still waiting, because one of the things I've asked for is what was
01:23the motivation behind copying in so many people to what was termed to be private
01:28correspondence, and we still have yet to get any sort of response to that from the Justice
01:32Department or Mr Wittes himself, but it's something that we are still asking to be done,
01:38because it's important, I think, that people understand, and if Mr Wittes has made a
01:43mistake, then if he's big enough to admit that, then that's really good, but I don't
01:47expect that he will.
01:49That letter would have been sent without the approval of the Justice Minister, it seems
01:53inconceivable, she certainly hasn't distanced herself from it. Do you have confidence in
01:58the Justice Minister that she is doing everything she can to deliver for police officers?
02:03I think she needs to do more, and I've said that before, and I'll say it again, the justice
02:10family that she's responsible for, PS&I, takes up about 65% of her budget, so we're the biggest
02:18stakeholder in all of this, and we're also the biggest sufferer in relation to having
02:24definite subpunctions, so we do need her to stand up stronger, and I used Meg Nesbitt
02:31as the comparator in health, where when the budget was allocated, he made it abundantly
02:36clear that he wouldn't support that, and she could have done likewise, and unfortunately
02:41she didn't.