Ms Josephine Feehily:

They look in horror at some of the things we do. We have developed very close collaborative relationships with the policing board in Northern Ireland and the policing authority in Scotland, but we are all different. My horror point is that I remember when I was explaining to colleagues in Scotland that we would be appointing superintendents, they thought that was an incredibly intrusive oversight and that it should be done by the Chief Constable. Everybody has a different view. It seems to me that the model in Northern Ireland was trying to address a particular problem. It has a model that also sits within public sector oversight. The accountable officer framework in Scotland is different. The accounting officer in Northern Ireland is different, and here it is different.

It is worth looking closely at some of the elements in the Northern Ireland model and we will be suggesting that, although I am sure we do not need to suggest it to Kathleen O'Toole because she was part of the Patten team. There are other elements that probably should remain with the Chief Constable. I know they do issues to do with pensions and so on. I do not know what that has to do with policing accountability or oversight. Every country has chosen a model which is good but perhaps not perfect.

In terms of the resource it takes for us, I certainly like the lighter recruitment model they have in Northern Ireland and Scotland, which extends only to assistant commissioners, and they delegate the appointments below that to the Chief Constable, so it is different. Some elements they have I would like but they would be horrified if they had to do some elements I have to do.