Those of you who follow me on Twitter and read my blog regulalry will know of the work I have been doing in relation to Cadder. This has not been a persoal crusade, but rather one to for the benefit of the public as there is a significant public interest in certain key elements of this case.
I have, for the last couple of months, being trying to extract information from the Police in relation to the implimentation of the Cadder legislation over the first three months it was in operation. This has not proved easy and has largly come down to the way in which IT systems used by the Police in Scotland operate (I certainly know more about their operation than I’d ever care to). It has become clear that it is simply not going to be possible to obtain the information I was looking for in terms of the Cadder implimentation. Thereore, I am withdrawing all requests for reviews and appeals to the Scottish Information Commissioner in relation to these Freedom of Information Requests (except where agreement has already been reached with the force in quesion and I am simply awaiting the information). Information was centrally collected until the middle of Decemebr by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (ACPOS) and this should be getting published this month. The period data was collected by ACPOS is not going to be significant enough to draw any real conclusions from, so I intend to make further requests to the police later in the year once they have upgraded their systems to take account of the changes to criminal procedure in Scotland resulting from Cadder.
However, a significant aspect is the way in which the Scottish Executive (as the Scotland Act 1998 refers to them) handled the Cadder case in the months between the evidence being heard and the Judgment being issued as well as the actual emergency legislation itself. This aspect of my Cadder work will continue and I will continue to seek the release of information from the Scottish Executive in relation to this. A request for an internal review into their failure to respond within 20 working days has been sent to them (which they ahve yet to acknowledge). This internal review was requested after careful consideration and advice from the lovely people at the Scottish Information Commissioner’s Office.
It does not seem productive for me, the police or the Scottish Information Commissioner to continue exploring an avenue that cannot be explored due to the limitations of information technology and that is my sole reason for suspending the exploration of this aspect of Cadder.
I hope this explains the current position clearly and that those of you who have been following the Cadder tweets and blog posts will get an understanding of where this is going and why this decision was taken.
prout de jure 