AN embattled senior police officer has had his conduct scrutinised again, following a row over personal development training he received.

Adam Briggs, deputy chief constable of North Yorkshire Police, hired a company called Enabling Development, which specialises in executive leadership coaching, in November 2007.

Over the following two years, Mr Briggs received services from the company which were billed to the force, at a cost of £10,000 plus VAT.

Mr Briggs, who is already embroiled in a separate disciplinary process over claims senior officers helped family members in a recruitment drive last year, had previously used the company when he was assistant chief constable of Cleveland Police.

North Yorkshire Police Authority considered the circumstances surrounding the training received by Mr Briggs during a meeting on Tuesday.

The police authority found that Mr Briggs did not seek approval from his line manager, chief constable Grahame Maxwell, before booking the training.

Quotations from at least three companies are usually sought by the force for work costing more than £5,000.

Mr Maxwell told the authority that, had Mr Briggs sought it, approval was likely to have been given.

In March 2009, Mr Maxwell retrospectively gave approval for the non-competition element of the deal.

A statement from the police authority said: “The authority has decided to record the apparent non-compliance with procurement rules as a conduct issue and to write to Mr Briggs to reiterate the chief constable’s advice.

“Given that the training was designed to develop him further in his role, the authority considers it appropriate that the cost of that training has been met from the police fund.”

Mr Briggs said: “The police authority has accepted that this training was relevant to my role and I was entitled to it.

“The outcome of the inquiry is that [the police authority] agrees with the action taken by the chief constable two years ago that I be given informal advice. In short, I should have filled in a form and I accept that.

“At a time when the force is faced with making hundreds of people redundant, I’m sure the public are left wondering why valuable time and resource has been used resurrecting a matter that was dealt with two years ago.”