A group of MSPs want an investigation into a “gap” in the powers of the body charged with investigating Sheku Bayoh’s death.
The Independent and Green group in the Scottish Parliament has called on the Scottish Government to review the powers available to the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) in response to concerns raised in the Sheku Bayoh case.
Mr Bayoh, 31, died in Kirkcaldy in the early hours of Sunday May 3 after being detained by police officers in the town’s Hayfield Road.
There has been much criticism of the length of time it took for officers to give their statements into what happened that day.
As the commissioner has been directed by the Crown to investigate in the case of Mr Bayoh, it cannot compel police officers to provide statements, the group said.
But had PIRC been instructed by the Chief Constable or the Scottish Police Authority, it would have been able to compel police officers to give a statement.
Independent MSP John Finnie said that on behalf of the Greens and Independent group of MSPs he had written to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice to ask him to examine the “gap in the legislation that hinders PIRC’s ability to investigate matters in a timely manner”.
“It is vital that we have a full confidence in the investigations that PIRC carry out and to have a less robust system depending on where PIRC is receiving its authority to investigate is not satisfactory,” he said.
“I trust that the Cabinet Secretary for Justice will give the issue his full consideration, regardless of the outcome of PIRC’s ongoing investigation.”