The Crown has won its High Court bid to challenge a human rights ruling which threatens to throw the prosecution of motoring offences into chaos.

Scotland's most senior judge, Lord Rodger, the Lord Justice General, agreed that a case can be prepared and brought before five law lords in the Privy Council.

The decision follows the police's use of Section 172 of the Road Traffic Act 1972 to compel a woman charged with drink driving to confirm who had been at the wheel of the car.

Since devolution, the European Convention on Human Rights has been adopted in Scots law. The convention makes the police powers under the RTA 1972 incompatible with the suspect's right to remain silent.

The woman, Margaret Brown, was convicted but her lawyers went to the appeal court last Friday to challenge the use of the evidence obtained by the police.

But the Crown then took the case to the High Court on Tuesday and was given leave to go to the Privy Council.

'Valuable tools'

Later this year, the convention will also be applied in England and since the Road Traffic Act is UK-wide legislation, any amendments will fall to politicians at Westminster to carry out.

Despite a danger of the courts system being thrown into disarray, the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland insists the general public will not be able to flout the law.

Martin Papworth, of the association's traffic committee, said: "In making their ruling last Friday, the judges were very careful not to talk about for example speed cameras or red light cameras. We will continue to use those very valuable tools to promote road safety.

"The requirement is still there, it is an offence to fail to give police information provided the circumstances are right. What is open to debate is how the police can use the information thereafter."

Latest example

John Scott, a lawyer from the Scottish Human Rights Centre, said: "Given the stage we have reached in the 21st century, we shouldn't be relying on confessions which are forced because the person can be imprisoned if they don't confess to the particular crime.

"That's a very, very old way of dealing with things. You are going back centuries to when torture was used."

The results of the challenge will now be keenly watched because further rulings using the human rights convention are expected to be made.

It is the latest example of the European Convention on Human Rights causing Scots law to come under close scrutiny.

The first was in regard to the outlawing of temporary judges because it was deemed defendants would not receive an "independent and impartial tribunal".