Justice Secretary MacAskill announces latest Scottish Legal Aid Board appointments at £212 a day, Chairman on £301 a day

The latest appointments to the Scottish Legal Aid Board, announced last week by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, see four new members appointed to SLAB (Alastair Kinroy QC, Sheriff Ray Small, Ray MacFarlane and Bill McQueen CBE) on £212 per day for a time commitment of 3.5 days per month while the Chairman (Iain A Robertson CBE) enjoys an even more modest £301 per day for a time commitment of 2 days per week.

Many of those appointed or reappointed to SLAB already hold several other well paid positions as the following Scottish Government release reveals …

Scottish Legal Aid Board appointments announcement

31/03/2010

The Cabinet Secretary for Justice today announced the appointment of four new members and the reappointment of the Chairman and two members to the Scottish Legal Aid Board.

The new members are Alastair Kinroy QC, Sheriff Ray Small, Ray MacFarlane and Bill McQueen CBE.

Alastair Kinroy QC has been a member of the Scottish Bar since 1987 and a Queen's Counsel since 2005. Previously he was a court solicitor in Edinburgh. His practice has been mostly in the Court of Session, with occasional Sheriff Court work. In his early years at the Bar he did a volume of Family Law work; in more recent years commercial work has been a significant part of his practice. His practice has always had a large element of personal injury work and professional negligence cases. He holds no other Ministerial public appointments.

Sheriff Ray Small has been a Sheriff at Hamilton, since 2001, having previously served as a Temporary and Part Time Sheriff, for three years. Before appointment to the bench, he qualified as a Solicitor in 1982 and practised in Glasgow, specialising in civil and criminal court work. He joined the Bar in 1992 and practised there until his Shrieval appointment. Sheriff Small also acts as a Director of Family Mediation, South Lanarkshire, and as an Independent Chair of the Scottish Football Association's Appeals Tribunals. He was involved in the Youth Court pilot scheme at Hamilton and is a contributor to legal textbooks on court procedure. He holds no other Ministerial public appointments. As Sheriff Small remains a Sheriff, he receives no remuneration for this appointment.

Ray Macfarlane practised as a solicitor in Glasgow before moving into senior management roles with Scottish Enterprise and HBOS plc. She is Deputy Chair of the Scottish Arts Council and Scottish Screen, a Trustee of the National Galleries of Scotland and a Non-Executive Director of the Scottish Housing Regulator. Ray receives remuneration of £2,280 p.a. for the latter role. She holds no other Ministerial public appointments.

Bill McQueen CBE is a former Deputy Chief Executive of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and has extensive experience of central government and its sponsored bodies, having also worked in the Scottish Office and Scottish Executive in a number of policy areas including Transport, Management and Organisation, and delivery of Corporate Services. Bill is currently a member of the Accounts Commission for Scotland (£6200 p.a.), a Non-Executive Director of Disclosure Scotland (£215 per day) and a Lay Member of the Employment Tribunals (Scotland) (£174 per day). He holds no other Ministerial public appointments.

Reappointments

Iain A Robertson CBE (Chairman) was chief executive of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) from 1990 to 2000 having previously spent 15 years with BP, latterly as director of acquisitions and divestitures in the USA. In addition to other senior industry and voluntary sector roles, he has served as a member of several boards, including the Scottish Tourist Board, Locate in Scotland Supervisory Board and the Cairngorms Partnership.

Iain is a member of the Accounts Commission (£6216 p.a.), an independent member of the Business Innovation and Skills Legal Services Group Board (£4800 p.a.), an independent member of HMRC Solicitor's Office Strategic Management Group (£4800 p.a.) and Chairman of the Coal Liabilities Strategy Board at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (£750 per day). He holds no other Ministerial public appointments.

Paul McBride QC joined the Bar in 1988 and became the youngest Queen's Counsel in the UK in the year 2000. He specialises in criminal defence work and has served as an Advocate Depute. He holds no other Ministerial public appointments.

Graham Watson retired from the Royal Air Force in 2003 as a Group Captain after 31 years' service. He is a professional engineer with over 30 years of senior management experience in a wide range of appointments. He is currently a member of Fife NHS Board where he is Chair Glenrothes and North East Fife Community Health Partnership for which he receives remuneration of £16,016 p.a.

These appointments and reappointments will be for 4 years and will run from April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2014.

The members posts are part-time and attract a remuneration of £212 per day for a time commitment of 3.5 days per month.

The Chairman's post is part-time and attracts a remuneration of £301 per day for a time commitment of 2 days per week.

SLAB is an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body established under the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986 to manage legal aid in Scotland. Its primary aims are to deliver efficient, effective and value for money legal assistance services; to broaden access by exploring new ways of providing and supporting quality assured legal advice services; to contribute to the improvement and effective operation of the justice system.

These Ministerial public appointments were made in accordance with the Commissioner for Public Appointments in Scotland's Code of Practice.

All appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees' political activity within the last 5 years (if there is any to be declared) to be made public.

Paul McBride has declared that he is currently the Advisor to the Conservative Party on Scottish and UK Law and Order and has previously spoken and canvassed on behalf of both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party. None of the other appointees or reappointees have been involved in any political activity.

Grandparents Apart UK : Charter for Grandchildren should be accepted throughout UK

The following comes from Grandparents Apart UK, showing the need for a UK wide implementation on the Charter for Grandchildren, after a young girl endured a four year nightmare of abuse.

A Happy Easter for Emma

There Is an Easter Bunny after all.

The 4 year nightmare of abuse endured by a little girl called Emma is now over. Four years of hell because social services would not listen to her grandparents. The Charter for Grandchildren should be accepted UK wide to avoid injustices like these. Charges have now been brought against her abusers at last putting an end to 4 years of horror the social services said was not happening. Emma has been disturbed by her experience and will need specialist help.

The story.

A couple split up in 2005 when Emma was 20 months. The mother did not want her unless the father stayed too. The grandparents stepped in and took Emma in and cared for her for 9 days before the police came and told them she had to be returned to the mother even although the social services had been told continually about the abuse which had been reported to them by the grandparents but they ignored them and did nothing.

During this time the grandparents had access and kept reporting to the father that Emma had bruises and once they had to take her to the local A&E for blood droplets coming out of her ear where she had been slapped hard. While they were there they were told there was signs of an old injury to her other ear that had never been attended to and still the social services did nothing saying it was because Emma didn’t speak clearly and that it was difficulty to determine just how she came to get these bruises.

The mother always maintained that she got them whilst playing with her siblings.

Even with the hospital contacting the Child Protection Units of the police and Social Services and the subsequent videoed interview of Emma the social services still refused to accept these injuries were due to Emma being physically abused at her home.

This family has been the subject of social service scrutiny since 2002 and even although Emma was placed in the fathers care four times in one year and is now the subject of Child Protection Conferences the social services have never once acknowledged the possibility that the mother or stepfather could have inflicted these injuries.

Emma attended the school with a large bruise on her forehead and informed her teacher found out she had been hit by her step father. The Child Protection agencies were informed by the school and two days later Emma was placed again into the care of her father. Emma’s brother was also assaulted so hard by the stepfather he was placed in the care.

The couple have problems which are critical and in need of attention they cannot control their tempers and have been advised to attend anger management sessions. Both have dependency on alcohol. The social services knew of the domestic violence in this house but yet refused to acknowledge it.

There is a lot more to this story but it is cloaked under the veil of confidentiality. The question needs answering why when the Social Services knew of the physical and emotional abuse these children were suffering did they not take action sooner to protect them.

Social Services failed to believe the father was the birth father preferring to believe the step father who said he had a DNA test which proved he was Emma’s birth father, they did not engage with the real father until late 2007 The Social Services preferred to believe the step father who had changed Emma’s name claiming he was the father

This case is well documented by the amount of correspondence written to the Social Services workers and their superiors highlighting the concerns of the father and grandparents regarding the child but these were mostly ignored.

Emma was hit by the step father. The grandparents are not being told the full story as they are still being cast aside. The Social Services are not saying anything, but the story we are getting from Emma was she was in her bed in the middle of the night and the step father hit her without reason.

The next morning emma told the school teacher of the assault, as she has been told to and the Social Services were then involved, however they did not contact the family and us until today and that was after interviewing Emma by video and subjecting her to another medical which they complained to us was stressing to Emma when we complained about her abuse six months ago.

The Social Services never listened to the child or the grandparents and suggested she only made the stories up. We are extremely lucky that she has only a bruised face and nothing more serious but the abuse she has suffered is beyond believe.

Thank god Emma is safe now and doing remarkably better at school.

Jimmy Deuchars, Grandparents Apart UK

Scottish Court Service now independent from Government although staff remain civil servants under Lord President's leadership

The changes to the Scottish Courts Service, brought about by the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008 are covered by Peter Cherbi’s “Diary of Injustice in Scotland” law blog, in a manner more comprehensively than we can report after just returning from the Easter break …

Scottish Courts Service becomes an ‘arm's length’ independent quango led by Lord President & corporate board

The status of the Scottish Courts Service, the organisation which runs Scotland’s Courts has been changed by the Scottish Government into what some in the legal profession now describe as an ‘arms length’ independent’ body, governed by a Corporate Board chaired by Scotland’s top judge, the Lord President Lord Hamilton. It is claimed, the new arrangements, introduced from 1st April, “will reaffirm the independence of the judiciary and help improve strategic decisions about the operation of the Scotland’s courts.”

The new arrangements, set out in the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008, are intended to improve the justice system by modernising the arrangements for the judiciary and strengthening the relationship between the judiciary and the Scottish Court Service (SCS).

Lord President Lord Hamilton. Commenting on the changes, the Rt Hon Lord Hamilton, the Lord President and Chair of the SCS Board said: “The changes taking place today - the creation of a Scottish Court Service under the direction of an independent Board and the creation of a unified judiciary - are important constitutional changes. The effect will be to place the Scottish Court Service decision-making process closer to those who are directly involved in the delivery of justice. I believe the new arrangements will provide an opportunity for the creation of a better and closer relationship between judicial office holders and staff, working together to deliver to the public the sound and prompt judgments to which it is entitled.”

“The members of the Board have among them a wide range of knowledge, skills and experience of working within the courts, in government and in the commercial sector. This breadth of understanding will help us develop the direction of the Scottish Court”

“Service and the delivery of services to all those who have need to use them. It will allow us, over the next few months, to consider and develop the strategic direction for the Service. We face, along with the public sector generally, difficult financial conditions. We must not underestimate the challenges this presents.”

In addition to the Lord President, the Scottish Court Service Board includes 12 other members – six members from different tiers of the judiciary and six non-judicial members, including the SCS Chief Executive, an advocate, a solicitor and three members with experience and knowledge from other backgrounds, including business, finance and administration. The ‘new’ members of the Scottish Court Service Board are The Lord President, Lord Justice Clerk, Chief Executive of the Scottish Court Service, The Rt Hon Lord Reed, Sheriff Principal R Alastair Dunlop QC, Sheriff Derek Pyle, Sheriff Iona McDonald, & Mrs Johan Findlay JP (all Judicial Members), Mr Robert Milligan QC (Advocate Member), Mr Mark Higgins (Solicitor Member), Mrs Deborah Crosbie, Mr Anthony McGrath & Mrs Elizabeth Carmichael CBE (Members from ‘outside’ the justice system).

The SCS Board will develop the strategic direction for the Scottish Court Service and deliver an operationally effective SCS, which is responsible for providing the staff, buildings and technology to support Scotland’s courts, the work of the independent judiciary, the courts’ Rules Councils and the Office of the Public Guardian.

The new SCS will work closely with the judiciary, Scottish Government, other justice agencies, professional bodies and consumer and court user organisations to help maintain and strengthen public confidence in the Justice system. SCS Chief Executive Eleanor Emberson has been appointed as Chief Executive to the new organisation. Ms Emberson has been Chief Executive of the Scottish Court Service since 2004. The Scottish Court Service remains part of the Scottish Administration and staff continue to be civil servants.

Those interested in the changes to the Scottish Courts Service status, which have come about from the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008 can view video coverage of the Lord President’s appearance at the Scottish Parliament at LawyerTV where the Lord President was questioned by members of the Justice Committee. While Lord Hamilton, the Lord President was mostly in favour of the bill, former Court of Session judge Lord McCluskey was more critical of many key points, including the amount of Judicial Administration Duties involved in the now passed legislation, along with questions over Judicial Independence.

Lord Hamilton on appointing the Judiciary – An element of trust involved …

Profiles of the members of the ‘new’ Scottish Court Service Board :

The Rt Hon Lord Hamilton, Lord President and Lord Justice General (Arthur Campbell Hamilton).Chair of the Scottish Court Service BoardLord Hamilton was appointed Lord President in December 2005. He was appointed a Judge of the Court of Session in 1995. He is a graduate of the Universities of Oxford (BA, Worcester College) and Edinburgh (LLB). He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1968.

The Rt Hon Lord Gill, Lord Justice Clerk (Brian Gill) Lord Gill was appointed Lord Justice Clerk in November 2001. He was appointed a Judge of the Court of Session in 1994. He is a graduate of the Universities of Glasgow (MA, LLB) and Edinburgh (PhD). He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1967, appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1981 and is a member of the English Bar.

Chief Executive of the Scottish Court Service. The Board appointed Eleanor Emberson as Chief Executive of the Scottish Court Service in February 2010. Ms Emerson was Chief Executive of the Scottish Court Service from 2004.The Board will appoint a chief executive in due course, who will also be a member of the Board.

Members of the Board appointed by the Lord President

The Rt Hon Lord Reed (Robert John Reed)
Lord Reed has been a judge of the Court of Session since 1998. He was appointed to the Inner House in 2008, having previously been the principal judge of the Commercial Court. He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1983.

Sheriff Principal Alastair Dunlop QC
Alastair Dunlop QC has been Sheriff Principal of Tayside, Central and Fife since 2000. He was educated at Trinity College, Glenalmond and the University of Dundee (LLB). He was admitted as a solicitor in 1976 and called to the Faculty of Advocates in 1978. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1990. He is currently a member of the Judicial Studies Committee and chairman of the three local criminal justice boards in his sheriffdom.

Sheriff Derek Pyle
Sheriff Pyle has been a sheriff for ten years. He is based at Dundee and was, prior to that, a sheriff in Inverness. He was formerly a solicitor in private practice in Edinburgh, specialising in commercial litigation. He has a particular interest in the reform of civil law and procedure in commercial disputes and was instrumental in founding the Highland Commercial Court.

Sheriff Iona McDonald
Sheriff McDonald was appointed a part-time Sheriff in 1995 and a full time Floating Sheriff in 2000. She has been Senior Sheriff at Kilmarnock since 2007. She is a graduate of the University of Glasgow (MA, LLB) 1978 and was a solicitor in private practice for almost 20 years.

Mrs Johan Findlay JP
Johan Findlay has been a Justice of the Peace since 1986 in Dumfries and is immediate past Chairman of the Scottish Justices Association. She was a Member of the Parole Board for Scotland from 2000 to 2006 and is an Honorary Sheriff. She is author of ‘All Manner of People, the History of the Justices of the Peace in Scotland’.

Mr Robert Milligan QC
Robert Milligan took silk in 2009. He is a graduate of the universities of Oxford (BA, University College) and Edinburgh (LLB and Dip LP). He was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1995

Mr Mark Higgins
Mark Higgins is a practising solicitor and a member (partner) of the multinational firm Irwin Mitchell LLP. He is a graduate of the University of Glasgow (LLB (Hons) and Dip LP) and is the author of the book Scottish Repossessions (W Green, 2002).

Mrs Deborah Crosbie
Deborah Crosbie graduated from Strathclyde University in 1991 BA (Hon) in Business law and industrial relations. She has had a successful career in the financial services industry and is currently Chief Information Officer for the UK businesses (Clydesdale & Yorkshire Bank) of the National Australia Bank.

Mr Anthony McGrath
Anthony McGrath, graduated from Glasgow University in 1978 BSc (Hon) in Mathematical Statistics. He has had a successful career in marketing and management in the food and drinks industry, including 11 years with Scottish and Newcastle, latterly as a member of its Group and UK management boards. Since 2005 he has been managing director of a chain of public houses.

Mrs Elizabeth Carmichael CBE
Elizabeth Carmichael graduated from Edinburgh University in 1970 MA (hons) History. She has spent most of her working life in the Civil Service, retiring in 2007. From 1999 – 2007 she was Head of the Community Justice Services Division, and since then she has taken on governance roles in the public and voluntary sector, as a Board member of the Scottish Social Services Council and the Deputy Chair of SACRO.

Scotland’s Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill. Kenny MacAskill Cabinet Secretary for Justice made little comment on the changes, simply saying : “Today marks a milestone in the work being done to modernise and strengthen arrangements for the Scottish judiciary and administration of the courts. It is fundamental to any democracy that the judiciary is independent of the legislative and executive branches of government.”

For my part, I note the appointment of Sheriff Alastair Dunlop QC, who represented me in the case against crooked Scottish Borders lawyer Andrew Penman, and was prepared to take Mr Penman to court and have his negligence & deceit exposed for all to see.

However, the then Alastair Dunlop QC, was speedily appointed to the bench as a Sheriff after just a week had passed after I'd met him, denying my access to my own legal counsel & the court as I couldn’t find another advocate who was allowed to continue the case.

I have the feeling we are looking at the formation of yet another quango to run the justice system in its own interests, rather than the interests of the public who has to pay for it through taxes … and only time will tell if any actual improvements come about through these ‘changes’ …