John Scott QC: ‘The Chief Constable wanted as close to a real-time oversight group as possible’
In this edition of ‘Talking Crime’, Policing TV’s Chief Presenter, Danny Shaw, discusses with John Scott QC, Chair of the Independent Advisory Group (IAG) on coronavirus powers used by Police Scotland, the vital role the IAG has played in Scotland over the past two years, in relation to Covid-19 regulations – and protests at the UN climate change conference, COP 26, in Glasgow.
At the start of the pandemic, and shortly after lockdown restrictions were introduced in Scotland, criminal defence solicitor-advocate John Scott QC took a phone call from the police.
Scott, who qualified over 30 years ago and was ‘Silk of the Year’ in the Law Awards of Scotland in 2018, is an expert on policing and human rights laws. He chaired the Scottish Human Rights Centre for eight years, led an Independent Advisory Group (IAG) overseeing the use of police stop-and-search powers and, more recently, headed a review into biometrics in policing.
That phone call, in March 2020, was from the Chief Constable of Police Scotland, Iain Livingstone. The Chief wanted to ensure there was proper scrutiny over the unprecedented powers police were getting to enforce emergency laws to control the spread of the coronavirus. Would Scott chair a special IAG to do that job? Of course he would.