Top officer says Scots police forces guilty of anti-English racism

ONE of Scotland's most senior police officers has claimed he was refused jobs with two police forces because he is English.

Ian Dickinson, the deputy chief constable of Lothian and Borders Police, believes he was the victim of racial discrimination by both Central Scotland Police and Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary.

The Yorkshireman has raised employment tribunal actions with the two forces on the grounds that he suffered anti-English bias.

Mr Dickinson, a former teacher from Humberside, had applied for the post of deputy chief constable in both forces but was rejected in favour of officers who had served in the respective forces for many years.

The Edinburgh force's second in command used Freedom of Information legislation to obtain correspondence and e-mails written relating to his application. He has now followed it up by raising formal actions through the employment tribunal process.

Senior colleagues are said to be bemused and embarrassed by his decision to take formal action. They predict it will harm relations between the three police forces involved.

Sources in both Central Scotland and Dumfries and Galloway forces say they are "relaxed" about his claims and will robustly defend the actions.

There is speculation that Mr Dickinson's domestic arrangements may have given local councillors, who vet each applicant, cause for concern. More than four years after taking up an assistant chief constable's job in Edinburgh, Mr Dickinson's wife and three daughters continue to live in Hull.

He lives in East Lothian but frequently makes the 500-mile round trip home and during one major incident in December he was caught out when, as the on-call chief officer, he had to hastily return to Edinburgh. He got only as far as Newcastle when the incident, involving a missing boy, was resolved.

A Central Scotland Police source said: "He obviously found the rejection hard to handle and has opted to raise this action but we are a modern, outward looking force and the last thing we could be accused of is being anti-English.

"It is an unusual move but we are relaxed about it all because the selection process was scrupulously fair and we now have an excellent deputy chief constable in post."

A spokesman for Central Scotland Joint Police Board, which is responsible for making senior appointments, said: "We have been served with notice of an employment tribunal appeal by Mr Dickinson and it is our intention to defend it."

A spokesman for Dumfries and Galloway Council said: "We would not comment on individual personnel matters."

Mr Dickinson was recently in charge of Edinburgh's Hogmanay celebrations and, ironically, he has been temporarily promoted to the rank of deputy chief constable with Lothian and Borders Police.

A spokesman for Lothian and Borders Police said: "This is a personal matter and it would be inappropriate to comment."

Mr Dickinson refused to comment on the matter. He joined Lothian and Borders as assistant chief constable in October 2001 before taking up his present post in April 2002. He has responsibility for specialist operations and was closely involved in the policing of the G8 summit.