Current Petitions

PE504 is on preventing convicted murderers from selling accounts of their crimes. The petitioners call on the Scottish Parliament to take the necessary steps to prevent convicted murderers or members of their families from profiting from their crimes by selling accounts of their crimes for publication.At its meeting on 4 February, the committee agreed to invite the Scottish Executive to respond to further correspondence that had been provided by the petitioners. The Minister for Justice states:"The Home Office have continued the work on criminal memoirs to which Baroness Scotland referred in her letter of 4 July 2003 to Mr and Mrs Watson and they hope soon to reach a stage where it would be sensible to consult on the issue."The Executive is also of the view that there would be no advantage to be gained in pursuing the matter at a devolved level, as"any Scottish measures could be circumvented by publication in England and Wales."What do members think of that?

The sense that something is to happen soon—or that proposals are to be produced for consultation soon—is the first sense of urgency that we have had. The correspondence that has gone backwards and forwards has suggested that it would be some time before proposals would be published. It looks as though something is going to happen sooner rather than later, which is helpful. That is the first positive indication that we have received.I have some sympathy with the minister's view that we need to take a UK-wide approach. It would be self-defeating if something could be published in England and Wales but not in Scotland, as the effect would be the same. With regret, I think that we should wait until Baroness Scotland publishes proposals for consultation. If anything remains outstanding, it is the need to have a sense of the timescale for that.

I agree with your first point, that we should ask when "soon" will be. I have no problem with that. However, as Jackie Baillie said, the issue is not where the documentation is published; it is where it is allowed to be available. A court recently made the decision to prevent information from being published by national newspapers about the woman from the Soham murder case.

Maxine Carr.

The national newspapers suggested that they might still be able to publish such information in Scotland, as the decision was made in a court in England. That is the kind of difficulty that we might get into. Unless the decision is led by Westminster, we could find ourselves in a difficult situation. We could identify when a decision will be made, but it might be best to wait until we know what Baroness Scotland has to say about keeping things in Britain on a level playing field.

We can ask about both those matters if we write to the minister. Are members happy to do that?Members indicated agreement.