Jon Boutcher picked as preferred candidate to be PSNI interim chief constable

Any appointment will be subject to final agreement.

Jon Boutcher has been identified as the preferred candidate to become temporary chief constable of the PSNI (Arthur Carron/PA) (PA Archive)

Jon Boutcher, the former police chief of Bedfordshire, has been identified as the preferred candidate to become interim chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), the PA news agency understands.

Any appointment is subject to final agreement.

The Policing Board conducted a recruitment process earlier this week, with the recommendation of Mr Boutcher passed to the Department of Justice and Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris.

Mr Boutcher has recently been conducting an investigation into the activities of Stakeknife, the Army’s top agent in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.

The board has agreed the appointment of an interim chief constable for the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The appointment is now subject to due diligence checks and ministerial approval

Policing Board spokesperson

The Operation Kenova report is expected to be published in the coming months.

Last week the board, the oversight body for the PSNI, announced that it had begun recruitment processes for both a permanent and an interim chief constable.

The vacancy arose following the resignation of previous chief constable Simon Byrne following a number of controversies.

These included a significant data breach in which the personal details of all officers and staff were mistakenly published online and a critical High Court ruling which said that two junior officers had been unlawfully disciplined.

PSNI Deputy Chief Constable Mark Hamilton is currently leading the force, although he is not at his desk following a medical procedure.

A Policing Board spokesperson said: “The board has agreed the appointment of an interim chief constable for the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

“The appointment is now subject to due diligence checks and ministerial approval.”

Mr Boutcher previously applied to become PSNI chief constable in 2019 but lost out on that occasion to Mr Byrne.

The job advertisement for the temporary role said the successful candidate will be in post for a minimum of three months, with the potential for further extension.

Expressions of interest were sought from chief constables and deputy chief constables, and anyone who has recently retired from these positions.

The salary for the job is £219,894 a year.

Applications for the permanent chief constable role will close on October 16.

The appointment panel will be made up of Policing Board chair Deirdre Toner; DUP member Joanne Bunting; Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly; the Alliance Party’s Nuala McAllister and independent board member Mukesh Sharma.

Northern Ireland’s new police chief will have a number of issues to deal with, including a budget crisis facing the force.

Senior officers have estimated that security and legal costs from the major data breach could potentially cost the force £240 million.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court issued a ruling on a long-running legal claim over holiday pay which could see the force having to make back payments of tens of millions of pounds.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood welcomed the potential appointment of Mr Boutcher and said he will be seeking an early meeting.

He added: “The challenges facing the PSNI are severe.

“A crisis in confidence among officers, civilian staff and the public alongside the very serious implications of the unprecedented data breach have left many feeling that the new beginning to policing has fallen far off course.

“In all of our dealings with him through Operation Kenova, we have found Jon Boutcher to be a man of integrity who has put the needs of victims and survivors above the narrow interests of paramilitaries and state agencies.

“It is important that the Kenova reports are completed, published in full and that there is no undue delay.”