News In Focus
22 February 2010
Catherine Dyer is new Crown Agent
Catherine Dyer has taken up the position of Crown Agent and chief executive of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), the service announced today.
It follows the appointment to sheriff of her predecessor Norman McFadyen CBE.
The Crown Agent's principal role is as the civil service head of the legal staff in the COPFS and legal adviser to the Lord Advocate on prosecution matters. The Crown Agent also holds the post of Queen’s and Lord Treasurer’s Remembrancer (QLTR).
Mrs Dyer graduated from Glasgow University in 1982 and worked in private practice in Glasgow prior to joining COPFS as a fiscal depute in Kilmarnock in 1986. She has subsequently held posts in Hamilton, Glasgow, Crown Office, and Edinburgh prior to being appointed procurator fiscal for Linlithgow in 2000. She was appointed Director of Change Management in April 2002 and as senior assistant procurator fiscal at Glasgow in December 2002, before becoming area procurator fiscal there a year later – the most senior procurator fiscal post in the country.
Speaking of the appointment, the Lord Advocate, Elish Angiolini QC said: "Catherine Dyer is a highly experienced, well respected prosecutor and was joint author of the Pryce-Dyer report which marked the beginning of a major modernisation programme for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in 2002.
“She has experience both in the Crown Office, and in leading Glasgow, our largest area. She will bring a wide range of knowledge, skills and experience to this challenging new role.”