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11th - 15th September 2006

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

This week in Parliament, the Justice 1 Committee heard the final stages of oral evidence in the McKie fingerprint inquiry, and the Chamber heard the Stage 1 debate on the Criminal Proceedings Reform (etc) Bill, which seeks to make reforms to the summary justice system.

Committees

The Justice 1 Committee met on Tuesday afternoon 12th September for the final stage of taking oral evidence as part of the inquiry into the Scottish Criminal Record Office. The aim of the inquiry is to help restore public confidence in the standard of fingerprint evidence, and the report produced by the Committee at the end of the inquiry is expected to contribute to that process. This inquiry was set up in the aftermath of the McKie case, in which the SCRO was judged to have serious deficiencies. You can access all the documents relating to the inquiry on its homepage, here.

Amongst those giving evidence were the Lord Advocate, Colin Boyd, and the Justice Minister, Cathy Jamieson. The Lord Advocate has been in his post throughout the McKie case, and so was in a position to be able to provide the Committee with detailed information about the important decisions he took during the case. During questioning, he stood by his decision to prosecute Ms McKie for perjury in 1999, despite the fact that the case rested on the identification of a single fingerprint. He said that at the time of taking that decision there had been no doubt as to the validity of the mark. Regarding the four officers at the centre of the case, while he expressed ‘enormous sympathy’ for them, he was unable to say whether they could be called as expert witnesses in future trials. You can read a full transcript of his evidence here.

The Committee then questioned the Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson, who spoke about her attempts to move things forward and her desire to be see matters finally brought to a close. She looked forward to the Committee’s report and pledged to consider any recommendations it were to make. She answered questions regarding the settlement of £750,000 made to Ms McKie, and she said that while she recognised the difficult position that the four SCRO officers at the centre of the case were in, she did not think it was appropriate for her to become involved in matters regarding their future employment or any possible disciplinary action. You can read her evidence here.

The Committee will now hold the meetings for the next few weeks in private in order to scrutinise the evidence gathered over the past months. You can read the press coverage of the meeting in the main weblog page here.

On Friday the Finance Committee published its Inquiry into Accountability and Governance. This inquiry recommends that the establishment of five new parliamentary commissioners, one of which, the Police Complaints Commissioner, should not now go ahead, as it is deemed that there role can be carried out by an existing body. In this instance, the Commission would be integrated within the Scottish Public Service Ombudsman.

You can read the Report here, and you can read the press coverage in the main weblog here. See also the article about the need for an independent body to deal with complaints against police by Daniel Donnolly, in the Writing section of the website here.

Chamber

On Thursday Parliament heard the Stage 1 debate on the Criminal Proceedings (etc) Bill, which proposes a wide range of reforms to the summary justice system. This Bill has been largely overlooked in the press, but the reforms it contains are significant and are akin to the importance of the Bonomy reforms in the High Court.

The Bill’s key reforms are in relation to the bail system, which will involve tightening up the conditions under which bail is given, and increasing the penalties if bail is breached. The Bill also contains measures to speed up the proceedings of summary justice, such as giving Procurator Fiscals the ability to ‘roll up’ all outstanding charges against an individual into one single case, and also to enable a trial to take place in absence of the accused (this is currently only available in summary cases involving offences where imprisonment is not an option). The Bill also increases the options and penalties available to prosecutors and sentencers, such as increasing the level of fiscal fines, and the creation of fine enforcement officers. Finally, the Bill also seeks to replace District Courts with Justice of the Peace Courts, and to make some changes to the way that JPs are trained. You can access the Bill’s homepage, which includes SPICe briefings on each of the main aspects of the Bill here.

There was a warm welcome to the general principles of the Bill from all parties in the Chamber, although there was broad recognition that there is a great deal of work still to be done at stage 2. The Justice Minister began her statement with the information that an amendment is to be made at Stage 2 of the Bill which will require that the court take public safety into account when deciding whether or not to grant bail. This received wide support, especially from the Conservatives who have been especially vocal in calling for bail reform. There were concerns raised by the SSP regarding the implications the Bill would have on prisoner numbers, while the Green party and the SNP raised questions regarding alternatives to prosecution. There were also significant concerns raised in relation to the possibility of trials held in absence of the accused. However, it was agreed that such concerns would be addressed during future stages of the Bill, and at the end of the debate the general principle of the Bill was agreed to. You can read transcripts of the full debate here.

Earlier on Thursday in the Chamber, Karen Gillon asked Cathy Jamieson questions regarding changing the law on corporate manslaughter in Scotland in order to close a loophole which was identified by the Transco case. You can read the questions here, and you can read the press coverage of the story in the main weblog section here.

Elsewhere in Parliament, the Green Party issued a press release on Tuesday which raised concerns about young children being fingerprinted by their schools, sometimes without their parents’ consent, as part of a high-tech biometric system to access school libraries. You can read the press release here, and the discussion in the press on the main weblog section here.

Posted by MM on Wed 20th Sep 2006 at 7:29 am
Children and justice Corporate issues Health and Safety Crime Prevention Civil Liberties Legislation Criminal Proceedings etc (Reform) (Scotland) Bill Police • Permalink • Tell-a-Friend