Current status: Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 29 February 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any powers to direct procurators fiscal to provide victims of crime with a written explanation of their decisions in respect of cases referred to them.
No. Section 48(5) of the Scotland Act 1998 enshrines the independence of the prosecution system in Scotland by providing that any decision of the Lord Advocate in his or her capacity as head of the systems of criminal prosecution and investigation of deaths in Scotland shall continue to be taken by him or her independently of any other person.
However, in February 2005 the Lord Advocate announced that, wherever possible, victims and next of kin who request it will be provided with an explanation for any decision to mark a case no proceedings or, in cases in which proceedings have commenced, a decision to discontinue proceedings or to accept a plea to reduce a charge.