News In Focus
22 February 2006
Wallace joins calls for Lord Advocate debate
The former Justice Minister and Deputy First Minister Jim Wallace has added his voice to calls for a public debate on the role of the Lord Advocate.
Mr Wallace's call for the role to be examined should the Scotland Act be reviewed comes in the wake of the Shirley McKie fingerprint case, where several senior legal figures have already called for the role of Lord Advocate to be depoliticised and removed from the cabinet.
Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson and the Lord Advocate Colin Boyd are due to address MSPs today about the McKie case. It is thought that Ms Jameison will continue resisting calls for a public inquiry into the Scottish fingerprint service and why experts alleged Ms McKie's fingerprints had been found at the scene of a murder.
Yesterday Gordon Jackson, MSP for Glasgow Govan and a QC, also said that the dual role of the Lord Advocate as cabinet minister and chief indpendent prosecutor was increasingly coming into question.
He said that while he had always thought the dual role was quite possible and appropriate and that he would resist a "knee-jerk" reaction to recent events, he did accept that there should now be debate on the issue.