Response and Information Unit
Crown Office
25 Chambers Street
Edinburgh EH1 1LA
Katy Preen
Tel: 0300 020 3000
Text Relay prefix: 18001
By email
mailto:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Our ref: R018807
13 July 2018
Dear Ms Preen,
Thank you for your e-mail of 30 June in which you requested the following
information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA):
Please can you provide me with the following information for the time period
01/01/2017 to 31/12/2017, for Scotland. If the offence has a different name to
those used in England and Wales, please provide details for the equivalent
classification.
1. The number of successful prosecutions for each of these crimes:
Wasting Police Time
Perverting the Course of Justice
Perjury
2. Details of the original offences that were being prosecuted, for which the
defendant is alleged to have committed one of the above offences.
3. If you do not hold this information, please can you tell me who does.
The first part of your request is specifically in relation to the numbers of successful
prosecutions.
Statistical information about prosecutions can be extracted more easily from the
Scottish Government Justice Department's Court Proceedings Database which is
designed to provide statistical information. It contains information about cases
prosecuted in all Courts and can provide information either at the level of the
specific offence or by certain broader groupings of offences (eg crimes of violence,
crimes of dishonesty, offences involving drugs etc). You can contact the Scottish
Government Justice Department at email
xxx@xxx.xxxx or write to:
www.copfs.gov.uk
General Enquiries Scottish Government
St. Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
In terms of the second part of your request I am unable to give you this information
in terms of s17 of FOISA because the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service
does not hold this information.
If you are dissatisfied with the way in which your request has been handled, you do
have the right to ask us to review it. Your request should be made within 40 working
days of receipt of this letter and we will reply within 20 working days of receipt. If
you require a review of our decision to be carried out, please e-mail
xxx@xxxxx.xxx.xxx.xx.
The review will be undertaken by staff not involved in the original decision making
process.
If our decision is unchanged following a review and you remain dissatisfied with
this, please note that although generally under section 47(1) of FOISA there is a
right of appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner, where the information
requested is held by the Lord Advocate as head of the systems of criminal
prosecution and investigation of deaths in Scotland, under section 48(c) no
application can be made as respects a request for review made to the Lord
Advocate. The information you have requested appears to fall into that category,
although ultimately it would be for the Commissioner to decide whether that was the
case should you refer the matter to him.
In circumstances where section 48(c) does not apply and the Commissioner
accepts an appeal, should you subsequently wish to appeal against that decision,
there is a right of appeal to the Court of Session on a point of law only.
Yours sincerely
H Hart
Response and Information Unit
A Register of FOI responses is published on th
e FOI page on the COPFS website:
www.copfs.gov.uk.
www.copfs.gov.uk
