The Commission welcomes the UK Supreme Court’s careful and considered decision in the case of Cadder v HMA.  

This is no time for emergency legislation as there is no emergency. The floodgates have not been opened – this decision clearly does not apply to concluded cases. Rather, now it’s time to get it right, and we have the time to get it right.

Interim steps which are already in place provide an adequate basis on which to launch a broad based consultation so that the practical implications of the decision are properly understood before a response is adopted. This should take into account experience so far in implementing the Lord Advocate’s interim guidance as well experience elsewhere in Europe, including our near neighbours, which already have increased access to legal advice for those who are questioned by the police.

The Commission is concerned by a number of elements of the response announced today by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice. Not only does the timetable present no reasonable prospect for a considered response, but the proposed extension of the six hour time limit for detention on reasonable suspicion to twelve and then possibly twenty four hours at the discretion of the police seems a disproportionate response to a decision which was based on the need to recognise the vulnerability of those questioned in police detention.