THE SNP has been accused of “tilting at populist windmills” by Scotland’s most senior lawyer after making a manifesto commitment to bring in a register of interests for the judiciary.
When the SNP manifesto was launched, the idea for a consultation on scrapping the Not Proven verdict rightly grabbed the headlines, but a small section on page 35 of the document seems set to put a future SNP government on a collision course with Scottish judges and the legal profession.
The manifesto pledge states: “To improve transparency and trust in the justice system, we will create a register of interests for members of the judiciary.”
Scotland’s most senior judge, the Lord President, Lord Carloway, and his predecessors have firmly opposed such a register which has been brought to the fore by a nine-year campaign by journalist, law campaigner and blogger Peter Cherbi to have judges and sheriffs register their interests in an open format available to the public.
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Lord Carloway is understood to be continuing his strong opposition and is believed to have the backing of most judges and sheriffs. A spokesperson for the judiciary said yesterday: “It would be entirely inappropriate for any judicial office holder to comment on an election manifesto.”
In 2017, Lord Carloway told MSPs: “Until such time as it’s demonstrated that there is corruption within the Scottish judiciary, I’m entirely satisfied that there is no requirement for a register of interests and that it would be positively detrimental to the administration of justice, particularly in relation to the recruitment of judges and especially at the higher level of the judiciary.”
Yesterday Scotland’s top non-judge lawyer, Roddy Dunlop QC, Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, who has been a senior independent counsel for the Government, told The National: “We are fortunate in this country to have a judiciary which is steadfastly independent. I am also aware of concerns voiced by Lord Carloway that a register such as that proposed would not only be unnecessary, but would actually be detrimental in dissuading quality applicants from seeking elevation to the bench.
“Lord Carloway is in as good a position as anyone to assess that matter. I should be very concerned if the Scottish Government were, in tilting at populist windmills, inadvertently to create a situation in which applicants are deterred from applying and in which, accordingly, our judiciary is weakened going forward.”
Peter Cherbi’s petition on the issues has seen both the Petitions Committee and Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament support such a register.
Cherbi said: “I welcome the manifesto commitment from the SNP to create a register of interests for all judges – a move which will increase transparency and accountability in Scotland’s justice system.
“The public interest petition which brought about this move has been a long debated proposal at the Scottish Parliament backed by cross-party support, and media interest.
“I am keen to see the Scottish Government engage with Lord President Lord Carloway on how to create the register of judges’ interests – and to ensure the resulting publicly available transparency register will increase public confidence in Scotland’s justice system and our courts.
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“Given the work put in by MSPs and detailed evidence heard at Holyrood over the past nine years of this petition, I would expect the register to – at least – meet the same standard of requirements of declarations of MSPs and Scottish Ministers,
“All links to the professions, business, industry and any relevant link, should be in the publicly-available register for court users, litigants, the media and public to scrutinise.”
Cherbi praised the committees and retiring SNP MSPs Angus MacDonald and Alex Neil for their work in bringing about this commitment by the SNP.
He added: “The National’s coverage has been a key factor in moving the proposal on from the Petitions Committee through the Justice Committee to a manifesto commitment from the Scottish National Party.”
Responding to the Roddy Dunlop’s comments, a spokesperson for the SNP said: “All parties in the justice committee in 2019 were minded to support a register."
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