Police Scotland have announced changes to some portfolios in the Executive team.

Assistant Chief Constable Bernard Higgins will become ACC Local Policing West, while ACC Mark Williams will move from that post to take on responsibility for Road Policing, and Emergency, Events and Resilience Planning. ACC Williams will also take on responsibility for the operational elements of the British Transport Police integration programme.

ACC Nelson Telfer will retain responsibility for Contact, Command and Control (C3), and for Specialist Services, which includes units such as Operational Support, Armed Policing and Air Support.

ACC Malcolm Graham will take on a new portfolio of Strategy and Innovation and will focus on areas such as partnerships and collaboration, and productivity and performance, as Police Scotland continues its work to modernise the service.

Temporary ACCs Alan Speirs (Professionalism and Assurance) and Gillian MacDonald (Crime and Protection) will retain their current positions for the time being.

Interim Chief Constable Iain Livingstone (pictured) said, “This reshuffle of portfolios represents an opportunity for some fresh approaches to dealing with the challenges we face in keeping Scotland safe.

“ACC Higgins is the only member of the Executive who has, until now, retained the original portfolio he had at the creation of Police Scotland five years ago.

“He has significant experience and a high profile in local policing, particularly in the west of Scotland. This move will provide him with a fresh challenge as he takes on responsibility for the policing of our most populous local policing area.

“Likewise, ACC Williams will bring a fresh perspective to planning for events and dealing with major incidents.

“As a former divisional commander, he will bring a local policing eye to that area of business, which is fundamental to the work we do to keep all of our communities safe. He also already has a strong working relationship with many of our resilience partners across the country.”

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John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.