A former Irish prosecutor has been appointed to ensure Scottish ministers maintain high standards of honesty and integrity.
James Hamilton, a former director of public prosecutions in Ireland, is the latest appointment to the panel of independent advisers on the ministerial code.
He joins former Scottish lord advocates Lord Peter Fraser and Dame Elish Angiolini, who have served as independent advisers since August 2011. Sir David Bell, a former top civil servant, was appointed in October to investigate comments Alex Salmond made about legal advice on Scotland's future in Europe.
Mr Salmond said the independent advisers' advice has been "highly valued" since the panel was created in 2008. "I am delighted to welcome James Hamilton as a new independent adviser, ensuring the continuation of the robust procedures that we have within Scotland's system of government," he said.
Six complaints have been referred to the independent panel to date, all of which were dismissed.
The most recent row centred on comments Mr Salmond made when he appeared to suggest ministers had taken legal advice on an independent Scotland's status in the EU, when it emerged no such advice existed.
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