Executive still in chaos over slopping out

Executive trying to overturn ruling that slopping out breaches human rights

Ruling against Executive could open way for compensation claims

Role of ministers under scrutiny after appeal deadline missed

Key quote

"Something went wrong - it shouldn’t have happened. What we have to recognise is that Scottish ministers collectively took the decision to appeal" - Cathy Jamieson, Justice Minister, on the Executive's failure to lodge the appeal

Story in full THERE was further embarrassment and confusion for the Scottish Executive yesterday after it emerged that ministers have yet to secure a court hearing in the controversial slopping out case.

The Executive had said its lawyers were due at the Court of Session in Edinburgh today, after they missed the deadline to appeal against the court ruling that slopping out in jails amounted to degrading treatment.

However, yesterday an Executive spokeswoman said the hearing would now not take place until later in the week.

The Executive is facing compensation claims running into hundreds of thousands of pounds after Lord Bonomy awarded 2,450 to a prisoner who claimed the practice breached his human rights. Robert Napier, 24, was required to slop out while being held at Barlinnie jail in Glasgow.

Appeal papers should have been lodged within 21 days of the original decision by the court.

However, the Executive admitted this had not been done by staff at the Office of Solicitors to the Scottish Executive (OSSE) and said lawyers now had to go to court to seek a time extension.

Yesterday, Cathy Jamieson, the justice minister, attempted to shift the blame for the failure onto the Lord Advocate’s office. She said that the "administrative error" occurred in offices which came under the auspices of Lord Advocate Colin Boyd.

She went on to insist that an internal investigation into the incident was now underway and that attempts would be made in the courts to "rectify the situation".

"Something went wrong - it shouldn’t have happened. What we have to recognise is that Scottish ministers collectively took the decision to appeal," she said. "The error appears to have occurred in a particular part of the Executive where the legal services are located. That comes under the auspices of the Lord Advocate’s department."

However, last night, Nationalists accused the minister of trying to pass the buck.

Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP’s justice spokeswoman, said it was Ms Jamieson, and not the Lord Advocate, who announced the Executive’s intention to appeal the ruling in a parliamentary answer on 12 May.

"She should have resigned over the Reliance contract scandal, but with the Executive’s gross incompetence now exposed over the slopping out appeal, she cannot hang on," said Ms Sturgeon.

"In a stunning display of political cynicism, she is desperately trying to point the finger elsewhere to save her own skin.

The Tories called on Ms Jamieson to explain herself before Parliament for the blunder. Tory justice spokesman Annabel Goldie said that if the government and Scotland’s top legal figure could not get it right, the courts should not be obliged to give extra time.

"It is also alleged that it took ten days before ministers even knew that they had missed the deadline," she said. "This takes incompetence to new heights."

Concerns have been raised that the Napier case could open the floodgates for thousands of potential claims for compensation costing millions of pounds.

Around 1,200 prisoners are forced to slop out in five prisons across Scotland, including parts of Barlinnie, Polmont, Perth, Edinburgh and Peterhead.

A spokesman for the Lord Advocate’s department said: "The Lord Advocate shares the concern of other ministers that this could have happened in the first place. And he expects steps to be taken to reduce the chances of anything similar happening again."

The affair is the latest in a string of embarrassments for Ms Jamieson, who will today face MSPs on the Scottish Parliament’s justice committee to explain the troubled hand-over of the prisoner escort contract to private firm Reliance.

Reliance have presided over a number of high-profile escapes, including that of a convicted murderer who stayed on the run for several days.

Ms Jamieson insisted she was in control of the situation and suspended the roll-out of the prisoner escort contract until the situation improved.

However, MSPs will be keen to get to the bottom of the problems and Ms Jamieson could face a difficult few hours in front of the committee.