Sheriff calls on Lord Advocate to spend time in court in Walmart approach to prosecution

Sheriff George Way was referring to a policy of the US retailer that sees senior managers spend a week per year on the shop floor.

He told Dundee Sheriff Court: “I live in hope – I mean one day the mighty Lord Advocate himself might just come and decide to sit in Dundee for a day. Then we’ll get decisions taken there and then.”

The sheriff said the pair should have to work as ordinary prosecutors in Glasgow Sheriff Court and elsewhere “like the management of Walmart”.

Depute fiscals have complained in recent years of a restriction on their power to take decisions to drop cases or amend allegations, saying they are forced to refer cases to senior managers in the Crown Office.

One solicitor said: “Nobody will take a decision on the hoof any longer. Everything is referred up. Sheriff Way’s quite right to flag this up.”

The Crown Office said it would “politely decline” to comment on the sheriff’s observations.