ADVOCATES have called for a review of the whole Scottish criminal justice system, before any move is made to abolish corroboration, a fundamental rule of Scottish law.
The Faculty of Advocates fears if the requirement for corroboration is removed from evidence gathering without safeguards ensuring police do not cut short investigations, it may lead to miscarriages of justice.
The faculty was responding to Lord Carloway's review of criminal law and practice which supported the abolition of corroboration. Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said in September he is "not minded" to reconsider Lord Carloway's recommendation or to refer the issue to a Royal Commission.
The faculty said in an analysis sent to ministers: "The matters raised - are of fundamental importance to the administration of justice in Scotland. They should be the subject of full consideration by a Royal Commission on the criminal justice system in Scotland or other similar inquiry with the widest possible remit."
The faculty fears without corroboration police may not carry out exhaustive inquiries. "This could easily have the effect of causing rather than preventing miscarriages of justice for complainers as well as accused persons," the response said.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The consultation sought views on whether any additional safeguards would be required as a result of removing the corroboration rule and we will carefully consider all responses."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article