SCOTTISH LEGAL SYSTEM

F1A7 34

11/24/2013

Contents

Terms of reference
My tutor John Allan has requested a report to be produced, which I will provide him with information on:
Duties of the Police, the powers of the police and the role of the police
Duties of the Procurator Fiscal, the role of the Procurator Fiscal and the powers of the Procurator fiscal
The role of the Lord Advocate
The role of the Advocate-Depute
Procedure
In order to produce this report, there was extensive research carried out
Reading the handouts
Using the internet for the websites
Police
Duties of the Police
The Duties of the Police under the Police Scotland Act 1967 is to make sure that offences do not happen and also to protect the public from crime and assaults.
Police Powers
Search
The police have the right to stop and search people in they think they are in possession of weapons. Please check appendix A for the full list. Before the police can search a person they must have reasonable grounds to search them.
Arrest
Police can arrest a person if there is a valid warrant in place for the person or the police can also arrest a person without a warrant if they suspect a crime has been committed. Please check appendix b for the full list. A police officer also has the power to arrest a person without a warrant under a range of statutes, for example, the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2000.
Question
The police have the right to stop and question an individual in the street if they suspect the individual of a crime or are witness to a crime. If an individual is stopped and asked questions they are expected to co-operate with the police and provide basic details such as name and address. If an individual provides false details they can be arrested for this crime.
Once the person has given the police their name and address it is up to them to decide whether they want to ask more questions. If they want to ask you more questions they can do so. Please check appendix c for a list of actions. If police have no further questions you should be allowed to leave.
Detain
If a person get detained the police has a right to hold the individual for up to 12 hour, then it can be decided by the police custody officer if they are getting released or detained for a further 12 hours. When an individual is being detained the police will take statements, fingerprints and also palm prints. If they are under 16 then the police have to contact the parents to let them know that the individual is detained.
After inquires
After police have completed their inquiries then a decision to prosecute an individual under the relevant law they have broken is made based on the evidence they have collected. The evidence is required to be sufficient otherwise the person should be released without charge. If the charge is minor the offender is sent for a citation from the procurator fiscal after being released. If the charge is more serious the police will hold the individual in a police cell until they can appear before the courts that will make the decision to bail the offender or remand into custody.
Article
In the article I have chosen the role of the police was fundamental in taking a gun carrying criminal of the street. If the police had not detained this criminal then there could have been serious consequences.
Procurator fiscal
Role of the PF
The role of the procurator fiscal ( known as PF in this report) is to prosecute individuals for committing a crime that there is evidence of or in suspicious deaths or police complaints. This part of the report will take a look into the role of the PF in these categories.
Crime
The PF looks at the evidence that has been gathered during the investigation into an allege crime. From the evidence that is presented to the PF they must decide if it is sufficient enough to take the offender to court. Evidence is only sufficient if they is 2 independent