Report and Recommendations - Scottish Government

involving the suspect having information concerning his/her human rights andaccess, should he/she desire it, to a lawyer. There is no judicial involvementat the time, only the potential for retrospective review.6.0.11 This Review is concerned with such a general development, which involvesthe introduction, or perhaps re-introduction, of inquisitorial methods employedby the police (i.e. the executive), and not the judiciary, into what has becomein recent years a highly adversarial trial process. The more the interview isperceived as part of the trial, the more that protections, which weretraditionally provided only in the context of court room proceedings, willrequire to be afforded at the outset of a suspect’s detention. This in turn islikely to move the trial further from the court room and into the police station.Thus, it might be anticipated, if the trend continues, a suspect will becomeentitled to greater notice of the potential charges and evidence against him/herin advance of questioning. Taken to its logical conclusion, it would, in theory,ultimately end up in a situation where the suspect in the police station isentitled to all the rights and privileges afforded to an accused prior to an actualdiet of trial; a situation which is, of course, impossible to sustain in a practicalsense within an adversarial process which does not involve judicialintervention at its inception.140