Law chief attacks justice claims

The solicitor general denied a large decrease in court prosecutions

One of Scotland's senior law officers has launched an attack on "misleading claims" which could damage public confidence in the justice system.

In an unusual move, Solicitor General Frank Mulholland raised concern about "uninformed" criticism and comment over reforms to summary justice.

His comments came in a letter sent to the justice spokespeople of Scotland's main political parties.

He said the reforms, passed by MSPs last January, were having an impact.

The Liberal Democrats raised concern about the way in which Mr Mulholland made his comments, while the Tories said the Scottish Government had been rattled by claims it was creating a "soft-touch Scotland".

Mr Mulholland's letter came after an earlier communication, in which he outlined the increased range of "direct measures" such as fiscal fines, or making compensation payments, made available to prosecutors under the reforms which came into force in March this year.

We can all argue about statistics, but the undeniable truth is that the SNP does want to empty our jails Scottish Conservative spokesman

It stated: "Since then, there has been continuing inaccurate and misleading claims, in the public domain, about the impact of summary justice reform."

The letter did not specifically attack the party spokespeople, but added: "Both local communities and media commentators can only properly form their own view on the impact of these reforms when they are equipped with facts."

Mr Mulholland said detailed data on how the new procedures were working was due to be released in September, but figures for the past four months have now been released.

The solicitor general said both he and Scotland's top prosecutor, Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini, had become concerned that "on-going uninformed criticism and comments runs a significant risk of damaging public confidence in the criminal justice system".

Mr Mulholland denied claims that summary court prosecutions had been cut by up to 75% because of increased use of non-court disposals, such as fixed penalties, and said any accusation that the Crown Office was downgrading its response to crime was "simply not borne out by the facts".

The Scottish Liberal Democrats said it would have been more appropriate for the concerns to have been raised through the Scottish Parliament's justice committee.

A Conservative spokesman added: "We can all argue about statistics, but the undeniable truth is that the SNP does want to empty our jails.

"More and more cases will end up with no prison sentence at all."