Colin Boyd Q.C. Lord Advocate
The Lord Advocate is the Ministerial Head of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, and the head of the systems of criminal prosecution and the investigation of deaths.
The Lord Advocate's appointment is political and may change with a change of Executive, but decisions taken by him and on his behalf in respect of criminal prosecution and the investigation of deaths are taken independently of any other person. In that connection he is not subject to the ordinary rules about collective ministerial decisions.
The independence of the Lord Advocate is preserved in section 48 of the Scotland Act 1998 and his position as head of the systems of criminal prosecution and death investigation is protected by section 29 of the Act. The early history of the office of Lord Advocate is obscure, but it is plain that it grew out of the necessity for the King to have an advocate to represent him in proceedings both criminal and civil. Hence the original title was 'King's Advocate' or 'King's Majesty's Advocate'. This ancient usage is continued in modern indictments which run in the name of the Lord Advocate as 'Her Majesty's Advocate'.
The first person to act in this role was John Ross of Montgrenan. In 1476 the King appointed him to be his commissioner for the hearing of a case in Stirling. In 1477 he was appointed by the King to be his procurator for the hearing of a case in Edinburgh. Then on 8 June 1478 he appeared before a court in Edinburgh as advocate for the King.
The title of King's Advocate dates from that occasion. But it was probably not until 1494 that there was a single permanent officer of state called the King's Advocate, and it was not until 1587 that his full role as public prosecutor developed.
The Lord Advocate is one of the great officers of state of Scotland. In that capacity he is one of the persons charged with maintaining and protection the Scottish regalia (the Honours of Scotland). Before the Union he had a seat ex officio in Parliament. Since the Union it has been customary for him to be a member of one of the Houses of Parliament. As Lord Advocate he is a member of the Government and goes in and out of office with the Government.
After the abandonment of the office of Secretary of State for Scotland in 1746 (it was in any event a much lesser office than comparisons with the present would suggest) the Lord Advocates gradually came to assume the powers of that office along with the Home Secretary. Henry Dundas, first Viscount Melville (Lord Advocate 1775-1783), in consequence of his political stature, firmly established the primacy of the office and used it to draw Scotland more fully into the United Kingdom. Not till 1885 was the Office of Secretary of State for Scotland revived.
The Right Honourable Henry
Dundas