Top judge - I would like to take the jet because … SCOTLAND’S top judge, the Lord President & Lord Justice General Brian Gill has signalled his ire over recent media exposes on his judicial colleagues use of publicly funded overseas jet travel with the issuing of an edict requiring all judges to seek permission from his own office before embarking on future international travel junkets.
The document, finally released in a Freedom of Information request after weeks of delays by the Judicial Office for Scotland, reveals Lord Gill - himself no stranger to the travel circuit after a now-not-so-secret six day state visit to Qatar - is to require his judicial colleagues to write up a short story on why they feel they need to take a taxpayer funded trip abroad instead of carrying judicial duties in Scotland’s overstretched courts.
Costs, numbers of judges attending, an explanation of the wider benefit of the trip to the judicial system and details of what may be learned must feature in any essay now required to be written up by all members of Scotland’s judiciary if they want to fly off into the sunset to law conferences & business meetings – all of which are mostly held at posh venues including golf courses, saunas and gala dress balls, followed by tours around museums, and off the books meetings at the personal haunts of the world’s rich, powerful elite.
The clampdown over overseas trips by Scotland’s judiciary appears to have been sparked after investigations by the Scottish media into the jet set lifestyle of Scotland’s secretive judiciary.
Reports first appearing in the Sunday Mail newspaper during June 2013, and more recently an investigation by the Scottish Sun - which included references to Lord Gill’s state visit to Qatar - sparked concerns Scots judges have lost sight of their station in court, instead appearing to prefer the jet set lifestyle to hearing what some judges refer to as “boring mundane cases” in Scotland’s courts.
From the Lord President: Attendance at conferences and authorisation of overseas travel
I have been reviewing the arrangements to control expenditure to meet attendance at conferences by the judiciary, especially where the conference is taking place outwith the United Kingdom. I have also been considering the arrangements for the authorisation of all other overseas travel to be paid from public funds. With immediate effect the following arrangements are to apply to future requests.
Requests for funding for attendance at conferences and for all other overseas travel should be sought only from the Judicial Office [1] . No request for support to meet attendance at conferences, or other overseas travel should be made to any other part of the Scottish Court Service.
In all cases where funding is being sought I require a business case to be produced by the judicial office holder or the judicial representative body that is seeking funding. The business case does not need to be long, but it must:
(i) identify the nature of the conference;
(ii) the number of judicial office holders it is suggested should attend;
(iii) why that number is necessary if it is more than one;
(iv) the benefit either to those attending or to the judiciary more widely from attendance at the conference;
(v) the likely costs of attendance [2]; and
(vi) the likely impact on the efficient administration of business.
The business case should be sent to the Executive Director of the Judicial Office for Scotland, Stephen Humphreys. He will assess whether funds are available to meet the costs of attendance and if so pass the business case to me.
I will then consider all requests and respond directly to the judicial office holder. I will need a clear justification for any overseas travel. As a general rule it should only be necessary for one judicial office holder to attend a conference overseas. It will only be in exceptional cases that I am likely to consider it necessary for more than one person to attend.
Where support is provided to attend a conference a report is to be prepared and sent to the Executive Director within one month of the end of the conference. The report will be placed on the Judicial Hub and the Judicial website. It is important that as many of the judiciary as possible are able to benefit from the investment of public money in attending the conference.
[1] In respect of attendance at events by Sheriffs, the Sheriffs Association will continue to consider the need for attendance by sheriffs at conferences before preparing the business case and seeking funding. The Association undertakes this activity on behalf of all sheriffs and it considers applications equally from both its members and non-members. If a sheriff wishes to attend a conference he or she should in the first instance contact the Secretary to the Sheriffs' Association. I am grateful to the Association for undertaking this function.
[2] When considering the costs of attendance at a conference, Judicial Office Holders should consult the Judicial Office for an estimate of the likely travel and accommodation costs, if required. Travel and subsistence rules apply to all travel whether inside or outside the UK.
While the clampdown on overseas trips is a welcome move by the Lord President, the Judicial Office for Scotland and Scottish Court Service are currently REFUSING to reveal any details of hundreds of trips taken by Scottish judges around the UK.
When enquiries were made regarding domestic UK destinations of Scottish judges, staff at the Scottish Court Service switched destinations of Scotland’s second most powerful judge – Lord Carloway from Bristol in England, to Dublin in the Republic of Ireland – in an attempt to avoid having to disclose the information on UK judicial travel via Freedom of Information legislation.
Full details of trips undertaken by Scottish judges were previously published by Diary of Injustice here: Overseas Travel of Scotland’s Judges 2013-2014 & Judicial trips & extra expenses claims 2010-2013
Oh indeed!Only came about because of your sterling work and the papers too.
ReplyDeleteGood to see judges finally being taken to account!
I can drive a bus through all that rubbish from Gill.Nothing will change the judges will have their travel junkets although maybe not as many as before.
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff I buy the Sunday Mail and now the Sun because of these kinds of stories so keep printing please instead of some bullshit put out by a judge to get round the real truth!
ReplyDeleteThis remarkable revelation confirms that there was literally NO MANAGEMENT of any Scottish Judge or Sheriff and that they were left to their own devices and because nobody was monitoring or controlling them, they took advantage and abused the system whereby the Scottish Public trusted Scottish Judges to act in an honourable way?
ReplyDeleteHow can we put up with this patch-up management style, after all the damage has been done and all of the money has gone?
Once more, this is yet another instance where Scotland's Judges and Sheriffs have acted in a morally repugnant and untrustworthy manner and have looked after their own self-interest before the responsibilities as a Judge?
This letter is Too-Little-Too-Late?
We need all of these Judges and Sheriffs named who have abused the system and they should be sacked on the spot for bringing their Office into disrepute?
How can Scotland's Judges and Sheriff's be allowed to pass judgement on members of the Scottish Public, when they themselves are guilty of dipping their stubby gravy stained fingers into the Public Coffers, so that the swine can wine, dine at the Public's expense?
Should Lord Gill not be reporting himself and his partners in crime to the Police, after all this is exactly the same circumstances as MP's taking liberties with expenses?
ReplyDeleteOne wonders how many other skeletons are rattling around, wanting to be heard, in their oak panelled cupboards?
Now it is becoming apparent just why Lord Gill was so desperate to keep things from the Scottish Public because if the Scottish Public learned what they were getting up to, the whole Scottish Justice System would come crashing down?
So, according to them, it's all our fault for finding out the truth?
DOI strikes again!
ReplyDeleteFrom the Lord President as in a letter from God!
ReplyDeleteWhat a joke and why have these trips got so out of control anyway and now the only reason he wrote the letter is because of the press coverage and Diary of Injustice publishing the trips.
It's a pity Leslie Nielsen passed away - he could have played an excellent version of Lord Gill in your judicial disaster movie "All Aboard!"
ReplyDeletePlease sir Brian Gill I need the jet to go to a round of golf err sorry I mean a conference on family law!!!
ReplyDeleteI am sure you already realised this one Peter anyway spot the real intentions of our Lord President in the following.
ReplyDelete"Requests for funding for attendance at conferences and for all other overseas travel should be sought only from the Judicial Office."
This is so Gill can keep requests away from the public gaze - remember LP is FOI exempt.
"No request for support to meet attendance at conferences, or other overseas travel should be made to any other part of the Scottish Court Service."
See what I mean?
An admirer of your significant contribution to Scots law.
Well done Peter!Another result for you!
ReplyDeleteHe can talk if he's been to Qatar on a state visit and anyway why are judges spending their time in the air instead of in courts???
ReplyDeleteJust another lie from the judges trying to claim they are cleaning up their act I dont believe a word of it especially after Gill's nasty reaction to your petition.
ReplyDeleteYou will get some more headlines about their outings on the taxpayer to prove me right.
Keep up the good work!
Good one Peter you forced Gill to rewrite his own non rules on junkets because now everybody knows the judges are at it.
ReplyDeleteRead your other posts on their junkets they must have been at this for years just think of the millions wasted paying for judges wandering around in first class seats and international club lounges and all those court cases delayed so the sitting judge can have his/her travel jolly.
ReplyDeleteNot on is it!
Keep up the pressure DOI, you cheer me up. But I learnt the hard way the courts are not about justice, just a legal aid and private business moneypot for the judiary. I learned not to go to lawyers and I advise everyone lese where practicable to stay away for them.
ReplyDeleteGive them a good pasting.
Give em hell kid!
ReplyDeleteStrange we have endured two years of Yes No Yes No and all will be better and not one mention of the justice system and corrupt rotten judges and lawyers leeching off taxpayers everywhere.Someone must have wanted to keep it quiet because too lucrative a scam for these crooks and all their friends all over the public sector.
ReplyDeleteNo one goes to Qatar for tourism they go for bribes money and political backstabbing etc
ReplyDelete@ 17 October 2014 19:08
ReplyDeleteLord Gill could report himself to himself and then appear in front of himself ... Not Guilty!
@ 17 October 2014 20:30
Yes, well spotted ... there are parts of this edict which are clearly an attempt to avoid transparency as in all things judiciary related.
@ 17 October 2014 21:31
Some more in the pipeline ...
@ 17 October 2014 23:46
Protect others by spreading the word ...
@ 18 October 2014 02:52
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Good point ... there are a lot of people involved in these trips, not just the members of the judiciary ... more to come on this soon.
Want to know what I think?
ReplyDeleteI think the judges have been left to get on with making their money any way possible legal or illegal tax dodging or whatever so they give the government the rulings they want and crooked public services a shelter from people who have been targeted/victimised by their activities.
It stands to reason.
Just take a look at court judgements over the years instead of a week's worth.Rich judges support their paymasters and the ones who give them these big pensions and allow them to fly around all over the place.
Obviously there are those in positions of power who continue to obstruct transparency by refusing to reveal details of domestic trips by judges - just how petty can you get?
ReplyDeleteSadly this determination to fight tooth and nail any suggestion of openness or any reasonable expectation of accountability reveals the true and continuing nature of Scotland's antiquated, dysfunctional and ineffective justice system.
Gill would never have introduced this scheme without DOI's investigative reports and the subsequent publicity in certain sections of the media - the BBC and STV being notable exceptions.
Clearly there is still a long way to go before Scotland can be seen to represent a truly democratic society.
" Gill can keep requests away from the public gaze - remember LP is FOI exempt."
ReplyDeleteExactly, keep everything in house, and under wraps!
Not often someone can make a liar out of the country's top judge.If he is or not that is the impression he is giving not just on your petition here also now I see comments pointing out escape clauses in his travel order.
ReplyDeleteIf judges are to write out pleading letters for air miles everything should be published not just some made up report after the event.
Good work all!
I know these kinds of people have to use ten thousand words when four will do but it would have been a lot more honest of Gill just to admit the jetting around is wrong and judges should be sitting in courts not jets as you said in the newspaper.
ReplyDeleteSo instead we get too many paragraphs from Gill on reviewing a travel dodge and listing ways to get around it and FOI requests!
Does he give the appearance of honesty?
I dont think so after reading your post on it and also what he did to the Scottish Parliament and all this running around with court staff lying about Lord Carloway's trip in the other post.
Trust the courts at your peril everyone because here we have the real version of what is going on in Scotland's justice system not the made up spin from MacAskill and co.
Just declare all of it.If there is nothing to hide there is nothing to fear right?
ReplyDeleteSo why all this edict writing instead of the full list of who goes where and why we as taxpayers have to pay for it.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteIt's a pity Leslie Nielsen passed away - he could have played an excellent version of Lord Gill in your judicial disaster movie "All Aboard!"
17 October 2014 19:46
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The talk in the steamie is that Ealing Studio's are thinking of resurrecting an old British film franchise because of the new material that the Judiciary and the Law Society of Scotland keep writing?
The working title of the new release is to be Carry On Judicial Expenses? Or alternatively, Carry On Your Duty Free Flight Allowance?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeletePlease sir Brian Gill I need the jet to go to a round of golf err sorry I mean a conference on family law!!!
17 October 2014 20:11
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Is it true that Channel 4 are proposing a brand new reality TV show called a round with Alliss, where Peter Aliss meets up with a Scottish Judge playing hookie on one of the famous courses in a far flung land and talks to them about how they get more days 'holiday' than actual work days?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteHe can talk if he's been to Qatar on a state visit and anyway why are judges spending their time in the air instead of in courts???
17 October 2014 20:55
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Is it something to do with the bonus points gained on each of their Platinum Credit Cards?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteGood one Peter you forced Gill to rewrite his own non rules on junkets because now everybody knows the judges are at it.
17 October 2014 22:10
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I suppose it makes a change from the back of a fag packet.
Does it not strike you as odd that none of this is reported in most of the newspapers and certainly not on news television?
ReplyDeleteJust shows who has the power in Scotland that they can force most journalists into keeping their scams a secret?
Great work DOI and thanks for sticking up for the Scottish People?
If the Scottish Judges can be dishonest over their expenses then what else?
ReplyDeleteThey have brought this on their own heads?
wonder how big this problem is around the world not just in Scotland with the judges flying around to all these golf courses instead of doing their proper job whatever that is supposed to be as in sucking up to banks and stuff!
ReplyDeleteI like the Judiciary of Scotland Aircraft logo - thanks to the efforts of the DOI, it has been conclusively demonstrated that lightning can indeed strike at the same place twice.
ReplyDeleteWell done!
If Scottish Judges are on the take for their expenses and have abused the trust the Scottish Public have in them, then how can the Scottish Public ever trust Scottish Judges Judgement to do their job?
ReplyDeleteAfter all, when a witness in court gives a mixed-up testimony, the Scottish lawyer questioning them will say that they have told a lie?
The Scottish lawyer will then embellish this in their own interest by calling the witness a lier in follow-up questions?
Ergo, Scottish Judges have ruled themselves out of being a bona fide Scottish Judge through proving that they have dishonerable character traits of a person unfit to be a judge.
It would appear that Scottish Judges have been too eager to screw-the-system and shove handfuls of £50 Pound Notes into their boots with reckless, gay abandon?
Somebody said to me yesterday that Scotland was possibly the most corrupt small country in the World?
ReplyDeleteNow I see what they meant and I wholeheartedly agree?
What is the difference between the Scottish Judiciary and a band of robbing swagmen?
ReplyDeleteThat's right, nothing!
Not bad at all - again you get a result because of your work and good support from press who know the story stands up.
ReplyDeleteThere are not many people going about who force a "top judge" into humiliating about-face on matters the judiciary regard as their own not for publication affairs.
Keep it up mate.
Better watch it Peter or Gill will do a lightning strike on you!
ReplyDeleteThe sooner Nicola Sturgeon appoints a new Justice Minister the better because their first job will be to kick Lord Gill all the way down the Royal Mile, do not pass GO and do not collect his £££££ Pension?
ReplyDeleteHow Lord Gill can cling onto power is a complete joke?
He should be sacked or he will bring the Scottish Judicial System to a juddering halt?
The vast majority of ascots are now not using Scottish lawyers or the Scottish Judiciary because of the corruption and it is only a matter of time before the whole Scottish lawyer cabal implodes in on itself because they tell so many lies they have lost the ability to judge between right and wrong?
One wonders what else the Scottish Judiciary are trying to keep secret that is about to explode into the Scottish Public's domain?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteNot bad at all - again you get a result because of your work and good support from press who know the story stands up.
There are not many people going about who force a "top judge" into humiliating about-face on matters the judiciary regard as their own not for publication affairs.
Keep it up mate.
19 October 2014 11:45
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He has brought it on himself for wanting to keep secrets from the Scottish People!
I wonder what else The Lord President is not telling us about that he should be coming clean over.
ReplyDeleteThe individuals with criminal records who are impersonating Scottish Judges have to be exposed and sacked and then all of the cases they have presided on since they ruled themselves out of having the necessary character to be a judge must be annulled and the impersonators forced to pay compensation to their victims?
ReplyDeleteAfter all, Scottish Judges know the law and knew that when the decided to break the law that they were no longer fit to be a Judge?
However, their friends at the Law Society of Scotland and at the Crown Office have participated in this fraud against the Scottish People by allowing these perpetrators to continue to impersonate a judge so that they can continue to collect their massive salaries and so that their big fat gilt edged pension remains intact?
Therefore the respective Lord Advocate and those contributarily negligent should be dealt with by the Police and they should be ordered to pay compensation and have their fat pensions cancelled or withdrawn to try to lessen the damage?
After all, it takes someone who is calculating and mendacious to allow a crime like this to happen?
Gill's letter has the Cherbi elephant in the room written all over it.
ReplyDeleteToo bad m'lud you were sussed out on the travel fiddle last year.Nuff said!
This may end up a bigger scandal than you are currently aware - I hear some of the judges have been to a few more places not on the lists handed over by scs and there is a rumour one of them fell foul of local laws..
ReplyDeleteWhat is the point of having Scottish Judges and Scottish lawyers when there is zero trust in them, especially when they are a drain on the Scottish economy to the tune of £1500 Million per year?
ReplyDeleteA far more trustworthy, transparent, accountable and value for money system would be to have a network of trained Polygraph Testing Professionals to interview both parties to a dispute to find out which one is telling lies, after all there is Only One Truth.
Both parties in a dispute would enter into a legally binding agreement that they will comply with the findings, as a Polygraph carried out by a trained professional is 96.8% accurate, which knocks the current status quo system in Scotland into a cocked-hat on every single comparator.
It also removes the doubt in people's mind where they will now be guaranteed a fair and just resolution instead of the current system which is on a hope and a prayer.
This system would also get rid of the need for Scottish lawyers and the criminal organisation the Law Society of Scotland.
Bring it on!
After several Scottish Patriots revealed, in the Parliamentary Debate on the Register of Interests for the Scottish Judiciary, that there are currently some Scottish Judges/ Sheriffs who are falsely passing themselves off as qualified to practise, when they have disqualified themselves by causing crime to such serious extent that they have been convicted in Court (albeit in a secret court, to keep this information from the Scottish Public). Should The Lord President (before he goes) be forced to reveal these charlatans or face the full force of the law by the Police going in to investigate and pick out all of these criminals and deal with them properly?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDelete" Gill can keep requests away from the public gaze - remember LP is FOI exempt."
Exactly, keep everything in house, and under wraps!
18 October 2014 13:30
£££££££££££££££££££££££
This sounds like another 'deliberate mistake' like what happened already with the Scotland Act, where Lord Gill is 'protected' from transparency and accountability, after he declined to be appear before the Petitions Committee citing the Scotland Act?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteI know these kinds of people have to use ten thousand words when four will do but it would have been a lot more honest of Gill just to admit the jetting around is wrong and judges should be sitting in courts not jets as you said in the newspaper.
So instead we get too many paragraphs from Gill on reviewing a travel dodge and listing ways to get around it and FOI requests!
Does he give the appearance of honesty?
I dont think so after reading your post on it and also what he did to the Scottish Parliament and all this running around with court staff lying about Lord Carloway's trip in the other post.
Trust the courts at your peril everyone because here we have the real version of what is going on in Scotland's justice system not the made up spin from MacAskill and co.
18 October 2014 18:00
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Secrecy is at the root of this failure to be accountable.
Exactly mirroring what happened with the MP's expenses scandal.
hmm no comments since 2014 so I'll add my two penny worth.
ReplyDelete"Takes Control" as in hands out more junkets.
Old Gill and the Judicial Office never thought this one through.
If you don't have something to show for taking control (as in less junkets) the whole bloody edict thing is piffle.
Nice one Peter and for all the coverage since