§ DR. CAMERON (Glasgow, College)asked the Lord Advocate, Whether his attention has been called to the appendix of a pamphlet entitled A Report by the Sheriff of Inverness, Elgin, and Nairn to the Commissioners of Supply of Inverness-shire; whether the "statements" of various persons, of which the greater part of that appendix consists, are declarations made before Sheriff Ivory in the course of a formal judicial inquiry; if so, whether it is in conformity with the practice of Scottish criminal administration to publish them; whether Sheriff Ivory published them with the cognizance or consent of the Home Office or Crown authorities; and, whether he has any objection to lay upon the Table of the House Sheriff Ivory's "Report," and the replies of the Lord Advocates of the last and preceding Governments to the official letters addressed to them by Sheriff Ivory contained in the "Report?"
THE LORD ADVOCATE (Mr. J. B. BALFOUR)&c.) (Clackmannan,I have seen the Report by the Sheriff of Inverness to the Commissioners of Supply of that county, as also the Appendix thereto. It is certainly not in accordance with the practice of Scottish criminal administration to publish information obtained in the investigation of criminal 1033 charges. The inquiry, in the course of which the statements contained in the Appendix were made, was one of a kind which, fortunately, does not often require to be entered upon in Scotland. It had reference to certain complaints which had been made by the police in regard to the conduct of a public official; and the primary question was whether he could with propriety be allowed to continue to hold his office. It was thus not a criminal investigation in the ordinary sense, though, for analogous reasons, I should consider it my duty to treat any information furnished to me under such an inquiry as confidential, except as regards any official persons who might require to consider it. I am not aware that the consent of the Home Office or of the Crown Authorities was either asked or obtained to any publication of the statements referred to. I cannot undertake to lay the Report upon the Table of this House, as it was made to a duly constituted County Authority having important statutory powers and duties with respect to the police of the county; and, although the official referred to was not in the service or under the control of the Commissioners of Supply, reasons are given in the Report which led the Sheriff to consider it proper to include the information in question in it. As I regard any correspondence between the Lord Advocate and the Sheriff of a county concerning a pending inquiry into the conduct of an official holding an office in a local Court as confidential, I cannot undertake to lay on the Table any letters, either from my Predecessor in Office or from myself, on the subject.