Judges splurged £15K on Glasgow Law gathering then fled at sight of Wikileaks transparency advocate. THE COST of sending nine Scottish judges including Scotland’s top judge Lord Gill from Edinburgh to a law conference held in the remote, far away city of Glasgow - cost taxpayers fifteen thousand pounds – according to information released this week by the Judicial Office.
However, Lord Gill's grand day out to the Commonwealth Law Conference (CLC2015) – where Scotland’s top judge grimaced & growled, hurling jibes at everyone & everything, from transparency to the political process - was cut short when Gill (73) led a hastily arranged judicial walkout after it was revealed Julian Assange – founder of Wikileaks – was booked to talk live at the event via a digital link.
The information, released by the Judicial Office in response to a Freedom of Information request reveals one booking for 9 judicial office holders to attend the Commonwealth Law Conference 2015 cost £14,823.66.
The following judicial office holders were originally booked to attend the conference: Lord President, Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Armstrong, Lord Woolman, Lord Mathews, Lady Dorrian and 3 Sheriffs were authorised to attend on behalf of the Sheriffs Association (names unknown at time of booking).
Following the bookings being made, the Lord Justice Clerk, Lady Dorrian and Lord Armstrong were unable to attend due to court commitments.
Sir Muir Russell was invited to attend the conference and agreed to chair a session entitled "A model form for judicial appointments in the 21st century Commonwealth". That session was scheduled to take place on the morning of Thursday 16 April.
Book them in – Judicial Office release details of CLC 2015 costs. Sheriff Principal Scott agreed to chair a session entitled "Human trafficking and migration", which was scheduled to take place on the morning of Wednesday 15 April.
In respect of the Sheriffs that were booked to attend the conference on behalf of the Sheriffs Association, it became clear in the lead up to the conference that not all could attend for the full conference due to court commitments. Agreement was therefore reached with the conference organisers that different sheriffs could attend for certain days and sessions.
The following sheriffs represented the Sheriffs Association at the conference: Sheriff Liddle; Sheriff Wood; Sheriff Di Emidio; Sheriff Jamieson; Sheriff Shead; and Sheriff Pettigrew.
1. The total figure quoted is for attendance at the conference only and includes VAT. One judicial office holder has claimed travel expenses.
On 19 May the Judicial Office received a T&S claim that related to travel to the conference. This was in respect of rail costs and travel by private car (mileage costs reimbursed). The total amount claimed is £17.05. No accommodation was booked for anyone attending the conference.
2. There was a set fee for attendance at the conference. The fee was: £1400 plus VAT (£1680) per booking. This was the “early bird” rate. One other fee was charged at £1144 plus VAT and a service charge of £34.86 (£1,383.66) as the booking was paid by credit card. There was a discount applied to this booking as SP Scott, who the booking was made for, agreed to chair a session at the event.
Lastly, in respect of the subsequent withdrawal by members of the judiciary relating to the conference booking of Mr Assange, the only information released by the Judicial Office was a copy of a statement that was issued on 16 April 2015 following a press enquiry.
The statement read: "The conference programme was changed to include Mr Assange's participation at short notice and without consultation. Mr Assange is, as a matter of law, currently a fugitive from justice and it would therefore not be appropriate for judges to be addressed by him. Under these circumstances the Lord President, Lord Gill and the other Scottish judicial office holders in attendance have withdrawn from the conference."
However, Scotland’s top judge managed to blast his critics in his opening speech – given prior to Lord Gill ordering judicial colleagues to evacuate the event.
Launching a fierce attack on calls for judicial transparency, the political process and the Scottish Parliament - who are investigating accountability and transparency within the judiciary amid calls for a register of judges interests, Lord Gill told his audience: “The threats to judicial independence do not always come with a knock on the door in the middle of the night. In a society that prides itself on the independence of its judiciary, the threat may come in insidious ways, even at the hands of well-meaning governments and legislators, in the name of efficiency and, ironically, in the name of transparency.”
Gill, clearly not a fan of Wikileaks, or judicial transparency, or judges declaring their interests – is more used to jet setting off to law conferences held around the world in venues far removed from Scotland.
In 2013, Lord Carloway – who is currently standing in for the now retired Lord Gill - flew off to Cape Town, South Africa to attend the Commonwealth Law Conference at a cost of £5541.37. Lord Gill also took the jet to the same venue, his ticket costing taxpayers a little less at £3233.31.
More on the jet set lifestyle of Scotland’s judiciary can be read here LORD FLY-BYE: Scotland's courts in the slow lane as judges prefer law conferences, business & 'diplomatic' trips to life on the bench
In 2014, Lord Gill splurged £2855 on a ticket for his five day state visit to the positively honest, reputable middle eastern dictatorship of Qatar – reported here: LORD JET SET: Scotland’s top judge Lord Gill takes 5 day STATE VISIT to Qatar as investigation reveals judiciary's international travel junkets spree
23 comments:
I just want to say I really hate when you do this on a Friday afternoon because now I wont be able to get out of office until late!
£15K Edinburgh to Glasgow for a pensioners day out seems a bit pricey!
aye and what else was Lord Gill doing in the positively DIShonest, DISreputable middle eastern dictatorship of Qatar..
Notice how the money always follows the judges wherever they go or whatever they do and it is our money not theirs.What gives Gill and his cohorts the right to slam the rest of us and your register when they are benefiting so much at taxpayers expense.Really incredible they get away with it.
Judges must have something to hide if they are running away from Wikileaks
You dont give up do you :)
Oh well completes the picture as they say.Now we know CLC2015 is just another taxpayer funded bash for legal weevils.
Did they have a closing night party?All sorts of debauchery while away from wives and families?
I was at CLC2015.It is not an exclusive judicial event.Many lawyers attend as you well know.
What you may not know is a certain senior partner of a certain Glasgow law firm attended the event and reputedly told his secretary to charge it up to client accounts.
@ 5 June 2015 at 19:23
Thanks.Yes have heard of solicitors charging up conferences and holidays etc to client accounts ... usually spread across a few to avoid suspicion.
Don't forget to share names, tips & info with the blog via email.
What a pathetic and hysterical reaction by people representing Scotland?
What a shower of sharks.
Please can you confirm how much money each Scottish judge has paid back to the Public Purse for their Walk of Shame?
So lawyers are secretly charging their clients for holidays and conference tickets and I suppose a whole lot more besides.
Lawyers really are bunch of lying rat bastards if you dont mind me saying so.
CLC2015 was just as boring as usual until the Assange talk.Much more interesting than old Lord Gill and his have-a-go-at-everyone speech.
Also you have correctly figured out this is a taxpayer funded binge.Just think of all those other impoverished Commonwealth counties who pay for their judges and lawyers to attend these talking shops.There should be some international outrage at this however as the legal fraternity are involved wider coverage in the more general media is not encouraged.
How strange.....not one Scottish Judge who has accepted a seat in the House of Lords has had any qualms or difficulty declaring their interests there, or keeping it updated.
Anonymous said...
CLC2015 was just as boring as usual until the Assange talk.Much more interesting than old Lord Gill and his have-a-go-at-everyone speech.
Also you have correctly figured out this is a taxpayer funded binge.Just think of all those other impoverished Commonwealth counties who pay for their judges and lawyers to attend these talking shops.There should be some international outrage at this however as the legal fraternity are involved wider coverage in the more general media is not encouraged.
5 June 2015 at 21:52
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I doubt the event organisers must have also removed the champagne and caviar from the menu, prompting the walk-out?
Given that no other international lawyer or Judge group walked out half way through, what does this say about the morals and poor judgement of Scottish Judges?
The words piss-up and brewery spring to mind?
Easy for some like the judges to get money out of the public purse isn't it while others lower down the chain suffer in poverty and are almost encouraged to commit suicide.
There was probably a few legal fugitives among the audience anyway so Gill's rant about Assange does not stack up.
Carloway,Dorrian & Armstrong must have been glad they missed this event. "Court commitments" covers a lot as I well know!
Carry on the good work Peter.
You really must do something about these people who constantly copy/repost legitimate comments and then put some piece of nonsensical argument to it in an attempt to reply.It makes lines of debate extremely difficult to follow!
As for my observation on your article - members of the judiciary who attend such high level events as CLC are judges who rule on important cases, probably in favour of business and personal interests as we now know from your hard work.
You already have the list of who was booked and who showed up.You know the rest.
Three definitions of insidious
Intended to entrap or beguile:
an insidious plan.
Stealthily treacherous or deceitful:
an insidious enemy.
Operating or proceeding in an inconspicuous or seemingly harmless way but actually with grave effect: an insidious disease.
The reality is that the legal profession are insidious, a crafty anto transparency confederacy of deceivers whose aim is domination over the |Scottish people in a clandestine way. Lord Gill is the man who was the spin doctor, regarding the Scottish Courts Review. A profession who can jail people, take away their children and cannot be removed through the ballot box are insidious making this evolved system utterly corrupt and full of terror that their crimes against the Scottish people be out in the open.
It is unbefitting of a Scottish Judge to champion secrecy over transparency and immunity over responsibility?
History will judge Lord Gill for being intransigent, unfriendly, obfuscatory and divisive, all qualities which should not be attributed to his successor if Scotland's Judicial System is to drag itself out of the pit of inequity?
Looks like the judiciary dont need any help getting themselves into trouble,do they?
The judicial crowd always like to personalise issues and attack people to justify their own ends.This rant at Julian Assange and others is just another example of their reign of fear.
Anonymous said...
Easy for some like the judges to get money out of the public purse isn't it while others lower down the chain suffer in poverty and are almost encouraged to commit suicide.
6 June 2015 at 15:42
££££££££££££££££££££££££££
As easy as their own Platinum Credit Card for expenses?
Any word yet about whether these walk of shame Scottish Judges have repaid the cost of this conference back to the Scottish Tax payer?
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