Inquiries on Peter Murrell’s legal aid

The Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) is bound by strict rules that govern what we can say about individual legal aid applications.

These rules come from the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986 and related regulations.

They carry strong confidentiality requirements, including potential criminal offences in the event of certain unlawful disclosure of information by SLAB. In addition to the legal aid rules, we must comply with data protection laws.

Other than information we might legally be required to provide, we won’t provide partial or incomplete information, or information which would be misleading in the absence of the full details we are legally precluded from providing.

We decide legal aid applications in line with guidance on the assessment of disposable income and capital, and may cease to make it available where there has been a change in the applicant’s financial circumstances or for a variety of other reasons.

A spokesperson for the Scottish Legal Aid Board said: 

“Legal aid and data protection legislation strictly limits what SLAB can disclose about individual applications. We can confirm the individual is no longer in receipt of legal aid.”