THE INSTITUTIONAL BIAS OF COPFS

In an encouraging display of backbone, the Convenor of the Salmond inquiry has written to the Lord Advocate pointing out that if Barbara Allison and the Scottish Government can use COPFS as their own private data store, then maybe it’s time the Lord Advocate provided the same service for the inquiry.

As the Convenor points out — with commendable understatement — in her letter, the provision to Allison of copies of the text messages she had requested “demonstrates that there may be material held by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service which is relevant to the Committee’s remit”.

The inquiry is therefore seeking from COPFS “any information, for example communications between officials, related to the conduct of the judicial review and the Scottish Government’s decision to concede”.

The Convenor has made it clear in her letter that the inquiry “will treat all information in accordance with the relevant court…