Alex Salmond inquiry: Why the two roles held by Scotland's Lord Advocate should be performed by two people – Scotsman comment

Metaphorically speaking, Lord Advocate James Wolffe sports a most unusual sartorial style in that he currently wears two very different hats at the same time.

The Lord Advocate, James Wolffe QC, answers questions at the Salmond inquiry committee of MSPs (Picture: Fraser Bremner/pool/Getty Images)

Under one hat, he is James Wolffe the Scottish government minister, who like any other essentially owes his position to the First Minister. In other words, he is a politician, although not quite in the same way as his colleagues as his main task is to provide legal advice.

Under the other, he is James Wolffe the independent, impartial and apolitical head of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

The Scotsman is by no means the first to point out the problem with two hats on the one head, whether on a fashion show catwalk or as a metaphor for these two very different roles being performed by the same person. Indeed, the arrangement was criticised when the Scottish Parliament was created in 1999.

Normally it is not the sort of issue that attracts enough public attention to prompt demands for change that are loud enough to lead to reform.

However, the Salmond inquiry has brought the problem into sharp focus for many. How can it be that the Crown Office, led by the Lord Advocate, a member of the government, has threatened legal action over a parliamentary investigation which is considering claims of a conspiracy within that same government?

Wolffe has said he was not involved in making that Crown Office decision and there is no reason to doubt him. However public opinion matters in such issues and there are some who will suspect Crown Office prosecutors would be unlikely to take such a step – or, indeed, not do so – without at least considering what their boss would think.

The Faculty of Advocates has now issued a statement expressing concern that confidence in the judicial system and the rule of law itself could be undermined by the current row.

In The Scotsman’s view, separating the Lord Advocate’s two roles would remove him from a difficult and inelegant position. It would also go a long way to restoring public faith that the justice system is entirely above politics and strengthening the necessary checks and balances that all democracies require.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.