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Meeting of the Parliament 25 September 2013

25 Sep 2013 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Corroboration

Mitchell, Margaret Con Central Scotland Watch on SPTV

I have been very generous with interventions. If the cabinet secretary does not mind, I will develop my argument.

The Parliament’s cross-party group on adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse has suggested improvements that might address some of the concerns expressed in the Labour amendment and by Kevin Stewart. They include the permitting of wider definitions of corroboration in cases of rape, sexual assault, child sexual abuse and domestic violence, a regular feature of which is the unlikelihood of there being a witness, while still maintaining fairness to the accused; further consideration of the introduction of more circumstantial evidence to help support corroboration in a chain of events; more systematic and constructive use of expert witnesses; and reviewing the application of the time period element of the Moorov doctrine—which has offered the opportunity for justice to victims of crimes of interpersonal violence—in cases where the modus operandi is similar, as it would lead to more flexible marking of cases by fiscals. The group made many more evidential suggestions that could and, I believe, would improve the application of corroboration.

Despite the fact that, under its terms of reference, it was competent for his review to do so, Lord Carloway failed to consider the option of retaining corroboration in the context of looking at the law of evidence to improve its application. That failure renders his review fundamentally flawed with regard to corroboration, and the motion seeks to ensure that the option, together with the options to either abolish or retain corroboration, are properly discussed openly and transparently by being subject to the widest independent review.

A wider review of the law of evidence should be carried out, including of the interaction between corroboration and other laws of evidence, either by referral to the Scottish Law Commission or a public inquiry. It is important to note that the term “public inquiry” has a very broad meaning and that a number of forms of inquiry are available. The type of public inquiry suggested would be similar to that under the commission that was established under Lord Thomson in 1970, which carried out a wide-ranging examination of Scottish criminal procedure and produced three reports, which are referred to in the 2012 paper by Professor Chalmers and Dr Leverick. The authors warned in that paper that never before have sweeping changes to the Scottish criminal system been as a result of a single individual and that the Carloway review was

“a model for criminal law reform without recent precedent.”

In conclusion, it is totally unacceptable that a decision of such a magnitude is crammed in with the Justice Committee’s scrutiny of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill with its miscellaneous provisions.

I move,

That the Parliament notes the substantial proposal to abolish the centuries old requirement for corroboration in Scottish criminal cases contained in the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill; notes the overwhelming opposition to this proposal from all parts of the legal profession, including the Senators of the College of Justice, the Law Society of Scotland and the Faculty of Advocates, as well as the Scottish Police Federation, the Scottish Human Rights Commission, the Cross-Party Group on Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse and many legal academics; believes that the proposal to abolish corroboration cannot be looked at in isolation and that the Scottish Government’s Reforming Scots Criminal Law and Practice: Additional Safeguards Following the Removal of the Requirement for Corroboration consultation was inadequate to support a proposed change of this magnitude; notes with concern the implications of the abolition of corroboration, which would undermine confidence in the criminal justice system, and calls on the Scottish Government to remove the proposal to abolish corroboration from the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill and, instead, to seek to improve the application of corroboration by carrying out a wider review of the law of evidence in Scotland, including the interaction between corroboration and other rules of evidence, by either a referral to the Scottish Law Commission or a public inquiry.

14:50

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Meeting of the Parliament 25 September 2013

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