Scottish Human Rights Law Group

The Inner House held in the context of an appeal against a sheriff’s decision finding grounds for referral to a children’s hearing established for their children, that to found a successful appeal, an irregularity in the conduct of the case had to be damaging to the justice of the proceedings.  

The court accepted that in view of the importance of the Reporter’s position, the act, or the failure to act, of the reporter could amount to an irregularity but did not do so in the case before it. While accepting that the reporter had a duty to act fairly in the handling of cases referred to the children’s hearing The court cautioned against  equiparating the reporter’s position with that the Crown’s in criminal prosecutions.  Insofar as there were delays in the case the court was of the view that there was no basis for supposing the delay made a material difference to the determination of the case and held that nothing in the manner in which the reporter had acted in this case had resulted in any fundamental flaw in the proceedings.