A full-blown row has broken out between Scotland's top prosecutor and a senior Coalition minister over potential legal action against Fred Goodwin.
Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland hit back yesterday after Business Secretary Vince Cable publicly called for a decision "as soon as possible".
Mr Mulholland warned the Cabinet minister against appearing to seek to influence the process, and rejected complaints by Mr Cable that he had not been kept informed of progress.
He also hit out at Mr Cable for making the call in a letter to his fellow LibDem minister, Advocate General and former Deputy First Minister Lord Wallace of Tankerness – a man he said had no role in the investigation.
However, aides to Mr Cable insisted he had had "no formal update" from the Crown Office in almost a year and a half.
The row centres on the potential prosecution of Fred Goodwin and other former directors of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) over the bank's disastrous 2008 collapse.
Mr Cable received legal advice that prosecutions could be possible following a damning report by the financial watchdog, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), that warned poor decisions had triggered RBS's collapse, including the £50 billion takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro.
Potential prosecutions could look at failures in upholding the duties of a company director, and possibly result in a bar on working in finance.
RBS's collapse meant the bank had to be bailed out by the taxpayer to the tune of £46bn.
While Goodwin lost his knighthood and a significant proportion of his almost £700,000-a-year pension, no senior RBS official has ever been prosecuted.
Although the letter was addressed to the Advocate General, Mr Cable also sent a copy to the Lord Advocate.
In it he wrote that he wanted to maintain public confidence in the Crown Office and that "public and media interest in the banking sector and RBS have not dissipated".
He added: "Given that this matter was referred to them in January 2012, I am very keen for a decision to be reached as quickly as possible in order to maintain public confidence in the efficiency of the decision-making process."
In his statement yesterday Mr Mulholland said: "I am disappointed to hear that the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) has written to the Advocate General in such terms. The Advocate General has no role in the investigation or prosecution of crime in Scotland.
"It would be unfortunate if this were to be construed as attempted interference with independent investigation and prosecutorial decision-making by the law officers. In the wake of widespread public concern about reported issues in the banking sector, I instructed an investigation into allegations involving the Scottish banking sector."
He added: "That investigation has been led by the COPFS Serious and Organised Crime Division. The investigation is complex and ongoing and the volume of material being considered is vast.
"Crown Office officials have kept BIS officials appropriately advised of progress throughout the investigation and confirmed on several occasions that in Scotland it is the Lord Advocate who is the sole prosecuting authority and that he acts independently in the public interest."
Mr Cable has also pressed for directors of the bailed-out Halifax Bank of Scotland to face bans as directors.
The Banking Commission is due to publish its report on the industry in June.
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