Jet set judges prefer life in the air to sitting in Scots courts. IF those of you stuck in Scotland’s “Victorian” courts for years have ever wondered what judges do in their spare time when they are not sitting on the bench or raising an eyebrow at the mutterings of counsel, one of the answers lies above the clouds, in the numbers of air miles Scottish judges clock up each year on a variety of jollies trips allegedly taken to represent the interests of Scotland’s justice system around the world.
As revealed in the Sunday Mail newspaper earlier in June, an investigation into the journeys of Scotland’s judiciary around the world revealed our overworked, over paid, stressed out and anti-transparency judges have been taking international trips to law conferences, and curiously titled “diplomatic missions” while the Scottish justice system lies in ruins.
Responding to a Freedom of Information request, the Scottish Court Service confirmed that £83,644 had been spent on overseas trips alone by Scottish judges between 2010 and 2013. While judges usually travel alone, or take a colleague, on at least two occasions last year, judges took their wives along on the taxpayer funded trips.
Scottish Judicial Airways : Overseas trips 2010-2013 taken by Scottish judges (Click image to view details). And how the media reported it : JET-SETTING LAWMEN NOTCH UP £83K BILL
Scotland's judges have racked up thousands of air miles on overseas trips, including jaunts to the US, India, Morocco and Malaysia.
Taxpayers have paid £83,644 to send judges and sheriffs around the world in the past three years. In 2010/11, the total was £14,430 which rose to £35,107 in 2011/12 followed by £34,167 last year.
The most expensive trip last year was to Kampala in Uganda. It cost £7300 for Sheriff Michael Fletcher and Lord President Lord Gill to attend a judges' conference there. Lord Gill’s other trips since 2010 have included Dublin, Cape Town in South Africa, Slovenian capital Ljubljana and a £1050 trip to a conference in Canada.
One of the most widely travelled was Sheriff Andrew Normand who has been on 11 overseas trips in the last three years. The judges usually travel alone or with a colleague but on two occasions last year they were joined by their wives.
The figures were obtained by legal blogger Peter Cherbi. He said: "Instead of flying around the world, perhaps Scotland's judges should focus on the problems within our own legal system."
The Judicial Office for Scotland said: "Attendance at overseas events must be approved in advance and comply with agreed guidance."
Further reports on the travels of Scottish judges in the media have also revealed the Lord President himself, Lord Gill, enjoys regular excursions to the far east including China and Taiwan.
It was also revealed by the Sunday Mail newspaper that Lord Gill, who had been summoned to the Scottish Parliament to explain his hostility to Petition PE1458: Register of Interests for members of Scotland's judiciary, jetted off to a law conference in South Africa instead of attending the Scottish Parliament to answer questions from MSPs on the proposal to require Scottish judges to disclose their so-far secret and murky hidden interests in a published register of judicial interests.
While our judges appear to prefer the jet set lifestyle to sitting for endless days on the bench, here in reality Scotland where access to justice is little more than an expensive joke for most, our expensive, almost lavishly funded courts are not working for the country, and have become aloof from the public’s need of justice in the 21st Century.
Perhaps a few less air miles and a few more more ‘court miles’ coupled with a face to face meeting with transparency, may go some way to remedying the problems, delays, failures and lack of transparency & accountability of the Scottish justice system Lord Gill himself branded as “Victorian” and “unfit for purpose” in 2009, because here in the not so futuristic 2013, and a few million air miles later, the Scottish justice system remains just as “Victorian” and just as “unfit for purpose”, as it was five years ago, Mr Lord President.
If they sat in court more often and cut some of the snide remarks perhaps cases may advance but no,cant have that because one's friends in the profession must be able to charge clients an arm and a leg and then sit down to dinner with m'lud on the quiet and have a jolly old laugh about it all.
ReplyDeletehaha very good nice to see the truth about our judges coming out at last and just look at that list of flights!No wonder the courts are in a mess!
ReplyDeleterespect but Scotland justice system is small fry and should not employed colonial expedition by judge who interfere in other country.What meddle does this Gill do in China?his kind not needed here just look how he treat your parliaments and insults all interests registering
ReplyDeletegood blogging
88
What a laughing stock these Scottish Judges are making out of Scotland's Justice System and the Scottish People who they obviously hold in utter contempt?
ReplyDeleteHow many of these Judges are fullfilling their employment requirements with regard to the number of hours spent actually doing there jobs?
It is about time all of these soirées to foreign lands are totted up as well as the hour in the morning of a Court hearing and the hour in the afternoon when the Judges knock-off early (usually to the golf course)?
All of course at the Scottish Tax Payer's cost?
Are any Scottish lawyers actually fullfilling their contract of employment?
As all of these flights of fancy are perquisites, are they being accounted for in their PAYE tax?
ReplyDeleteTis should be a matter of record and should be printed off and posted online (similar to what MSP's and other Public Appointments have to to)?
Are these flights economy class or business class/first class?
Over a £1000 pounds flight to Canada is either First Class or Business Class?
I hope that any wives who have travelled have been paid out of the Judges salary?
I hope none of these junket flights have been claimed as expenses?
Are these trips abroad taken on their own time as part of their holiday entitlement OR are these Scottish Judges choosing to fly all around the work, claiming that this is part of their work and sunning themselves on a jolly instead of being at work?
If any of these points are in the affirmative then those that are guilty should be sacked for gross misconduct, have their fat pensions cancelled and have to pay back all of the monies they have embezzled from the Scottish Tax Payer?
I cannot believe all the time the Scottish People have thought that Scottish Judges have been fighting the good fight and working diligently at their job, all the time they have been swanning around, slapping each others backs and slopping on the sun-tan lotion, whilst toasting their fly behaviour over a few G&T's all the while they are sponging the money out of the pockets of hard working Scottish Tax Payers and sniggering whilst their piggy snouts slurp up the gravy....?
What is even more insidious is that all of this behaviour was hitherto hidden from the Scottish People and they intended to keep this behaviour a secret from the Scottish People?
What else have they been getting up to?
ReplyDeleteExcellent report and I could not agree more with your perfectly valid criticisms.
ReplyDeleteAnd what is Salmond, McRaskill and the SNP doing to remedy the situation - #~gger all as usual.
How can a Scottish Judge look a Scottish Tax Payer in the eye and justify flying 1st Class on Injustice Airways to Kuala Lumpur on the other side of the world to attend a £35 quid conference?
ReplyDeleteAnd rack up £1000.00 in food?
Sounds like snout in the trough to me?
Could that be double-billing I see for the entry against Lord Eassie on 6th -7th May 2011 for £380.94 X 2?
ReplyDeleteThis must be a habit from the time as a Scottish lawyer where it is a given that the Client is at least double-billed as a minimum?
If they want to go on lobbying trips which seem to be more about the legal profession than the justice system of Scotland then the Law Society should foot the bill.
ReplyDeleteWhere is AWOL Airways flying to next?
ReplyDeleteIf they are frittering away Scottish Tax Payers cash at this rate, would they not be better off getting Tax Payers to buy them a Lear Jet for their personal use?
It would probably work out cheaper?
So this is where all of the money has gone?
ReplyDeleteSightseeing, nature viewing, wining and dining........oh, and a few seminars thrown in for good measure?
Now we can understand part of the reason for the secrecy....So that these perquisites are not discovered and taken away from them?
I am sure you are surprise if I tell you match the journey of local or international event there is a way to believe the rumor the judges may run errand for security service.
ReplyDeleteLook at the journey to Africa countries with much business with China.
How about trips to China by this Gill reported in the newspaper that not on the list Did you know there are more with same background on the same journey and have suspicious movement in China?
Do you know British businessman who died in China claim influence with British judge and politician.Some think this scandal organize more than we know.
I think your judge do other than is known and law conference are its cover story.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteIf they want to go on lobbying trips which seem to be more about the legal profession than the justice system of Scotland then the Law Society should foot the bill.
1 September 2013 19:27
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I agree with you 100%
Are Scottish Judges polititions or are they judges?
The Law Society of Scotland already have lobbyists working behind the scenes at the European Parliament. Get them to pay for these lobbying excursions?
We have enough Polititions and Law Society of Scotland lackey's to deal with this without our Scottish Judges become quasi-judicial polititions too?
Where do they park that jumbo jet?!
ReplyDeleteWhat about the Scottish Judges flying to Dulles Airport in Washington, USA?
ReplyDeleteI am assuming this was to meet their FBI/CIA handlers regarding the Lockerbie scandal?
@2 September 2013 14:31
ReplyDeleteInteresting.Similar details and claims have emerged during the summer recess ... if you want to discuss more contact the blog.
Must admit their travel plans do raise questions given we are talking about a justice system of a small country which only has about 5million people in it.
ReplyDeleteI think you may be onto something here,Peter and there is a lot to come out about what the judges are up to when they reach their destinations.
"diplomatic missions" have no place in the justice system wouldn't you all agree?
ReplyDeleteIf judges want to play James Bond they should do it full time instead of using judicial office as a surveillance tool.
The comments have taken an interesting twist and may cross with something I heard last year about a diamond contract in Namibia which was supposed to go to a Chinese firm then was canceled allegedly after the involvement of a Scottish lawyer on behalf of a British company.After a bit of research the name I was provided with for lawyer turned out to be false and the true identity leads back to the son of one of your judges who himself may well have a financial interest in the British end.
ReplyDeleteThere is a judge on that list who was supposed to be off work due to ill health and this resulted in a few delays to hearings in a case I was involved in at the time.
ReplyDeleteWont name the judge as per your comment publication rules but you get the drift of what I am saying.
Lord Gill is nothing more than a poacher turned gamekeeper.
ReplyDeleteHis earlier report branding the scottish - so called justice - system 'Victorian....involving obscene delays....in urgent need of reform' amounted to nothing less than a shot across the bows of those deciding if he could get the top job.....at the Second time of asking.
Clearly they got the message and decided they would be more comfortable with him 'inside the tent pissing out, than outside pissing in'.
sounds like this is going to uncover a much bigger scandal than how much it cost!
ReplyDeleteGiven the way the SCS are handling fois these days I suspect those figures have been adjusted down and the true amount is much greater.
ReplyDeleteLots of trips to the European Courts although our judges do not seem to respect ECHR pleadings in Scotland.So why bother paying for them to have a Euro holiday when they treat us so badly and then tell msps to get stuffed over the register of interests petition?
ReplyDelete@2 September 2013 20:12
ReplyDeleteWhat you describe could be one for an investigation ... Care to share more details ?
@3 September 2013 11:19
Its possible ...
If the travel plans and some of these comments match up it does not surprise me one bit to learn a bunch of highly paid unaccountable predominantly pensioner unionist judges with secrets so great they refuse to declare to parliament are doing the international rounds as lookouts for the empire and big business.
ReplyDeleteJudges are almost the perfect cover.Who would ever suspect them and who would even think of searching them or following them around with all those howls of independence of the judiciary Ad Nauseam whenever any of them are questioned about what they are up to.
Hmm one thing I cannot see a judge ever declaring is a financial interest in a diamond mine deal fiddled by his own son!
ReplyDeleteBUT there will be some people in China and Namibia who know all about this so just a matter of time before it makes the press
Ladyboys and judges welcome aboard please take your seats on Air Wig One .. haha good one,hope you don't mind me adding the little extra!You'll end up as a headline writer or in front of a very angry LP!
ReplyDeleteSome of your regulars who appear to be anti independence might be interested to know relatives of judges are making a lot of money from the No campaign via PR consultancy and other dodgy work.One claims he has raked in over £50K for posting a few lines in the rags comments sections.Your friends in the press will know exactly who I am talking about.So next time your readers have a go at the independence referendum remember there are No donors who are directly or indirectly lining the pockets of Scotland's supposedly impartial judiciary and their families.Surely this is something to declare for your register of interests if those expressing their views want fair play?
ReplyDeletePS I like the China angle.This will cause some big problems when it all comes out.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteHmm one thing I cannot see a judge ever declaring is a financial interest in a diamond mine deal fiddled by his own son!
BUT there will be some people in China and Namibia who know all about this so just a matter of time before it makes the press
3 September 2013 16:38
Yes thank goodness for the internet and sites like this and the newspapers who are willing to expose the closed world of judges.
Years ago none of this would ever get out after a quick word in the ear of some editor.Much different today and one thing for sure these judges on their jumbo jet flights or private jet will be subject to closer inspection wherever they go now this is public knowledge!
Well whatever is going on with these judges there is definitely something up with their secrets attitude and they are not flying round the world for nothing and I dont think anyone is going to swallow the legal meeting stuff not after all everyone has been through with the banks and constant lies from politicians and now we have the judges and justice systems just as corrupt and rotten as everything else
ReplyDelete1st comment sums the whole thing up.These judges are complaining about the state of the justice system but it turns out they are too busy flying all over the place to do anything about it.
ReplyDeleteAnyway who gave these judges the right to make all these trips and conduct foreign policy on the hoof?They should be in court and doing the job they are paid for instead of acting like some kind of second Government without any of the transparency elected politicians are held to
As a solicitor I was not keen to get involved in this debate about the judges earlier on.However after a discussion with someone from the Judicial office who I think you know I have come to the conclusion you are correct and judges must be held to account just like everyone else.
ReplyDeleteYou have certainly worried some people because the protracted and quite bitter rant against your exposes in the press changed my whole perspective on what you are seeking to achieve with the petition.
I just do not think anyone no matter who they are or what they do can justify arguing against transparency in modern day Scotland and attempting to smear advocates of transparency and dodging open debates in parliament only makes it look like there is something to hide and perhaps a lot of deep seated problems created by people who have become too used to being their own masters over how the justice system affects public life.
Good stuff in the comments especially the one about Scotland's justice system being a bit of a backwater "small fry".
ReplyDeleteYou see these trips and all these "colonial expeditions" are part of the myths created around pompous arrogant vestiges of empire where the people who run the show enjoy manipulating events in other countries to gain influence for themselves and to make a wee bit [undeclared] money on the side.
After reading your stuff and watching those videos about the parliament I do not think I will ever trust a judge again certainly not a Scottish judge.
Ah yes the siblings of judges.Did you know that a son of one based in Edinburgh was kept out of a drugs raid even though everyone knows he is a dealer and has been supplying students with all their needs.Cannot charge the son because Pfs rely on papa to put them away is it?
ReplyDeleteIf Gill had not been so arrogant about your petition and all the threats to msps about the Scotland Act this might not have gained publicity.His attitude against transparency and the lack of any dissent from the remainder of the judiciary has to be one of the strongest points in favour of passing your petition into law this year.
ReplyDeleteAs for all these flights,well this travel lark should be scaled right back and these judges made to do their job instead of flying all around the world at our expense and appearing to achieve very little.
Guess what?Similar travel plans south of the border but the figures are much higher.There is something more going on than trips to boring law conferences.Read about it soon!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteAs a solicitor I was not keen to get involved in this debate about the judges earlier on.However after a discussion with someone from the Judicial office who I think you know I have come to the conclusion you are correct and judges must be held to account just like everyone else.
You have certainly worried some people because the protracted and quite bitter rant against your exposes in the press changed my whole perspective on what you are seeking to achieve with the petition.
I just do not think anyone no matter who they are or what they do can justify arguing against transparency in modern day Scotland and attempting to smear advocates of transparency and dodging open debates in parliament only makes it look like there is something to hide and perhaps a lot of deep seated problems created by people who have become too used to being their own masters over how the justice system affects public life.
4 September 2013 14:08
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Well said.
Surely you can't be the only decent Scottish lawyer left?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteSome of your regulars who appear to be anti independence might be interested to know relatives of judges are making a lot of money from the No campaign via PR consultancy and other dodgy work.One claims he has raked in over £50K for posting a few lines in the rags comments sections.Your friends in the press will know exactly who I am talking about.So next time your readers have a go at the independence referendum remember there are No donors who are directly or indirectly lining the pockets of Scotland's supposedly impartial judiciary and their families.Surely this is something to declare for your register of interests if those expressing their views want fair play?
PS I like the China angle.This will cause some big problems when it all comes out.
3 September 2013 21:13
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Some could offer a very plausible case that Scottish Judges are anti-Scottish, such is their determination to keep their secrets from the Scottish People and their me, me, me attitude when it comes to their inflated salary for fewer and fewer hours of work, whilst at the same time the hard-pressed Tax-Payer is paying through the nose for the Scottish Judges to top-up their sun-tan?
This could only happen in Scotland?
Do Scottish Judges get handed a Gold credit card so that they can run up bills when they are abroad on holiday, I mean on The Lord President's Secret Self Service?
ReplyDeleteWould it not be far better and cheaper for Scotland if all of these over paid and under worked Scottish Judges were sacked on the spot and we flew in Judges from any other country to take their place?
ReplyDeleteHow many hours do Scottish Judges actually work remembering that they are the highest paid Judges in the whole of the European Continent?
ReplyDeleteWell, the Court is supposed to commence at say 9.30 am and you have their hour lying-in time that makes it a 10.30 start, then they break for lunch between 12.30 and 1.30 pm but as we all know it takes a wee while to allow the bottle of Claret to breathe before pouring, so let's assume a 2 pm reconvening, then at 4.30 pm it's time to run-for-the-hills or whatever their golf course is called?
So, let me see that is an average day of 4 and a half hours a day for a 5 day week, less an extra hour knocked-off for Friday's early finish........That gives an average of 21 and a half hours a week?
Then when you factor in day's off for impromptu golf games when the weather's good and over sea trips the figure gets lower and lower for £1000.00 a day of Tax Payer's cash?
Doesn't seem right does it......?
Oh, apologies, apologies, I am sorry I have got that way wrong, I am so sorry........I forgot about the double-billing which of course makes it out to 43 hrs a week which looks a lot better......?
Yes very interesting to read some of the comments on this one.A couple of years ago a colleague of mine asked for information about a trip taken by a judge.It took weeks to get any response and little was released,a lot less than you received in response to your FOI request.As far as comment went they even turned the request for a statement into an FOI request and that was delayed for six weeks or so leading to the story falling in a heavy news week and that was the end of it.
ReplyDeleteKeep pursuing this as you are and I assume you are keeping an eye on any clandestine attempts to ascertain how your investigations are proceeding.
When you look into many of these overseas trips you wonder just what relevance they are to Scottish Judges and therefore the People of Scotland.
ReplyDeleteIt would be an interesting study for someone to ascertain just how many of these functions were indeed attended by Scottish judges or whether or not this is a thinly disguised ruse to continue to drain the money pot dry for personal enrichment?
Maybe the receipts, if they have even submitted any, would tell an entirely different story?
Curious how Scottish Judges can countenance operating a Victorian Justice System yet fly all around the World in gay abandon in the most technically advanced planes that money can buy?
ReplyDeleteShould it not be incumbent upon them, in the interests of justice of course, to travel around in a carriage drawn by horses, with footmen and a pack of Dalmatian hounds running at the rear?
This may have the unintended consequences of ensuring they could not stray too far from where they should be. Their place of employment?
Hazel Wood
They should use the internet to have conferences, that way they would save taxpayers money. No austerity for Gill and his cronies.
ReplyDeleteIn reply to the comment of 5 September 2013 23:28
ReplyDeleteThe Court of Session does not sit on a Monday so you need to revise your figures........downwards!
After watching the Channel 4 Dispatches about Cyril Smith and the Police/Security services protecting him I think anything is possible and anyone would be a fool to believe these judges are not up to something more than just going to law conferences and leading secluded lives in amongst books about the law.Well done for getting this into publication.Bad for judges and their secret scams but good for us so we know all their pontificating from the dock is just a lot of judicial rot.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the Channel 4 Dispatches about Cyril Smith and the Police/Security services protecting him I think anything is possible and anyone would be a fool to believe these judges are not up to something more than just going to law conferences and leading secluded lives in amongst books about the law.Well done for getting this into publication.Bad for judges and their secret scams but good for us so we know all their pontificating from the dock is just a lot of judicial rot.
13 September 2013 23:33
There are plenty Cyril Smiths in the legal profession and the judges if you plow through the headlines years there are about
I agree there is something more going on here than just a bunch of old men traveling to law conferences at the taxpayers expense.
ReplyDeleteQuite a find your blog.
I think you will be high on the surveillance ladder for this work.
You are getting to the heart of how the state protects itself and uses a supposedly fair justice system to justify any action the state so chooses to take against the individual.
Oh this is good I did not know judges traveled so much at our expense and I thought we have diplomats to do all this?
ReplyDeleteI think these judges are promoting their own business for secret profit after all the whole courts justice thing is really a business as you always say in your posts
4 what its worth I reckon these judges are using these trips for their own benefit or for other reasons.
ReplyDeletelets face it these judges will be able to find out a lot about other countries when they go there and go places without too much questions because who is going to suspect old duffers of maybe doing a little spying on the side or information collecting for the legal troops back home to get their fat snouts in the troff of some impoverished or developing country or first league countries where there is lots of money sloshing around.
If I were in these countries where the judges are heading I'd be asking questions and keeping an eye on them too because if they are up to no good at home god knows what they will be up to abroad.
Interesting set of figures you have here about the judges travel claims.
ReplyDeleteLord Hamilton who was the Lord President cost us a lot less than his colleagues especially some of these sheriffs who are scoffing up thousands on foreign trips.
Given the state of our justice system I do not think it is healthy to allow all these judges to roam around the world at our expense when they should be sat in court hearing cases.