Once again the call is made that the inevitable inquiry into the malicious prosecution scandal should be chaired by a judge from a different jurisdiction.

I have already asserted through SLN that to do so would be a mistake. I repeat that assertion.

Our judiciary has already demonstrated that it is quite capable of addressing high level errors of law and practice: in the present case Lord Tyre has already found in the circumstances of the only case exposed to judicial determination that those circumstances did not meet the standards required to satisfy the test of malice.

I repeat that this case is an exclusive product of significant elements of our whole Scottish system of investigation and prosecution of crime: it must be chaired by a member of our own senior justiciary. It must be chaired by someone steeped in an understanding of the nuances of that system.

There is an old adage in shooting sports that you do not adjust to a bad shot. We have already had one adjustment by one lord advocate to what he, personally, called as a ‘bad shot’: let us not have another. Two adjustments to a bad shot can result in you aiming at the wrong target.

By all means have as many external co-chairs or external observers as might be thought appropriate but ultimate control of the inevitable inquiry must be seen to be firmly within the control of our own system.

TAK Drummond KC