Investigation into SNP finances prompts Tory calls for timescales in prosecutions

Scotland’s justice secretary has rejected calls to introduce mandatory timescales for charging and prosecuting people in the wake of the Operation Branchform probe into SNP finances.

Angela Constance told MSPs introducing such a change is not something she has “given current thought to”.

She was pressed on the matter in the wake of Operation Branchform, which has seen former first minister Nicola Sturgeon and her husband Peter Murrell arrested and questioned by police.

In April last year, Murrell, a former chief executive of the SNP, was charged in connection with alleged embezzlement of party funds – which came just over a year after his initial arrest in April 2023.

Sturgeon was arrested and questioned in June 2023. She was released pending further investigation, and said in December 2024 she knew “nothing more” than she did at the time of her arrest.

Raising concerns that “justice delayed can become justice denied” Conservative MSP Craig Hoy asked if the Scottish Government had considered “setting mandatory timescales for decisions relating to charging and prosecution of criminal procedures”.

Constance told him decisions on when either charges or criminal proceedings should be brought are “independent operational decisions made by Police Scotland and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service”.

She told Mr Hoy: “The Scottish Government has not had any discussions about the setting of mandatory timescales in these matters.”

The Tory raised the issue following comments by Scotland’s most senior judge, Lord Carlow, that it “looks as though there is hold up”.

Speaking about Operation Branchform, the Lord President told STV News: “I don’t know where the hold-up is, whether it’s with the police or the Crown Office.”

Referencing those comments, Mr Hoy asked the justice secretary if she shares “the concern of a growing number of people that where high-profile cases take years to investigate, there is the increased risk of an internal or external factor undermining the investigation or jeopardising a successful prosecution” – adding factors that could have an impact include the right to a fair trial in a “reasonable time”, as set out in Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

He asked Constance: “Wouldn’t setting mandatory targets for the time it takes to bring charges or mount prosecutions address fears that justice delayed can become justice denied?”

The justice secretary claimed that was “just another attempt to lure myself into commenting” on a live case when “no minister can comment on live matters”.

Constance added: “In terms of discussions regarding mandatory timescales in and around the charging and prosecution, I reiterate what I have said already, I have not had any discussions and it is not something I have given any current thought to.”