TP Legal Support

Disclosure has been problematic in many cases in Scotland, especially when people have chosen to represent themselves. Sometimes it has been the Procurator Fiscal simply claiming that he has no witness statements to disclose, sometimes they have simply not replied to requests and sometimes they have openly refused to give witness statements to defendants if they are representing themselves.

We believe that we have the right to disclosure, under Article 6 (Right to a Fair Trial) of the ECHR. The caselaw in Scotland now appears to agree with us since the 2005 Privy Council decision in Sinclair

We recently became aware that there would soon be new guidelines issued to Procuratore Fiscals about disclosure in summary cases. We were told that the Crown Office (who would issue it) were consulting the Law Society of Scotland (and possibly others) about what should be in it. Concerned that neither of these bodies has much experience of representing themselves as lay people, we sent this submission on behalf of TP.

We are attempting to obtain more information about the remit of this consultation, and also a copy of the current guidelines on disclosure in High Court cases on which we understand the new summary guidelines will be absed. When we do we may supplement this submission.

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