New Law Degree

Two of the first three members of UK police forces to gain a new Masters Law Degree are employees of Aberdeen-based Grampian Police. Alastair Graham and Iain Gray, both senior members of Grampian Police support staff, have graduated from Northumbria University with a LLM, a Masters Degree in Information Rights Law and Practice.

The degrees, unique to Northumbria University, were awarded to the Grampian colleagues and to a member of a non-Scottish force at a recent graduation ceremony. To achieve their degree, Alastair and Iain spent two years study through distance learning along with regular 480 mile round trips for weekend seminars in Newcastle.

The main subjects studied were Freedom of Information, Data Protection, Privacy and Confidentiality Law and Environmental Information Regulations. Alastair Graham commented: "It has been hard work on top of our daily duties but we found the course to be highly relevant to our jobs.
I am sure many others from Police Forces and elsewhere, will benefit from this course in the future but, for now, it is quite gratifying to be the among the first in United Kingdom policing to gain this degree."

A police officer for over thirty five years, Alastair Graham is currently on secondment to the Scottish Government to work on the implementation of legislation for the Protection of Vulnerable Groups. Iain Gray joined the Force in 2004 and is Acting Head of the Information Disclosure Unit in Alastair`s absence.