Lord Bracadale

The Federation, which represents rank-and-file police officers, has threatened to take legal action against the inquiry over the meetings, which it said had not been disclosed to the core participants.

The inquiry now intends to hold a public hearing in June to consider “the fairness of the conduct and procedure adopted by the chair in meeting with the families of Sheku Bayoh”.

However, Bayoh family lawyer Aamer Anwar has condemned what he said the family considers “a desperate attempt by the Federation to undermine the public inquiry”, which is in its final stages.

Mr Anwar said: “Recently the dean of the Faculty of Advocates, Roddy Dunlop KC – also lawyer for the Scottish Police Federation – in defence of the Supreme Court said he considered it to be ‘a duty to speak out in defence of the judiciary when it comes under attack, especially given the constitutional restrictions which prevent the judiciary from defending itself publicly’.

“For over 50 years Lord Bracadale has given his life to public service, acting always with integrity and impartiality, yet this attack comes as no surprise to the Bayoh family, who have been subjected to repeated abuse and attempts to undermine them.

“The question is: why now? In over three years, nobody has uttered a word of complaint. Why should the chair of a public inquiry not meet the victim’s family, as they do indeed in every other public inquiry in the UK?

“Only recently the chief constable [of Police Scotland] met with the Sheku Bayoh family to offer her apologies to them, and she publicly stated her full support for the public inquiry.

“During the course of evidence, the former lord advocate offered his apologies to the Bayoh family – so the question is not what the Federation say, but what lawyers for the Crown Office and Chief Constable will do at the hearing.”

He added: “This inquiry has robustly exposed the incompetence, misconduct, alleged criminality and institutional racism at the heart of our criminal justice system – nothing the Police Federation, Police Scotland, Crown Office or PIRC does now can ever change that. 

“Police Scotland recently advised us in an FOI they had spent £17,332,174 on lawyers since the public inquiry was announced – in this final throw of the dice by those acting for the police, the public have right to know why millions more must be spent on police lawyers? 

“Stop wasting time, let the truth be told, let the inquiry conclude, then have your say.”