Corroboration

That the Parliament notes the substantial proposal to abolish the centuries old requirement for corroboration in Scottish criminal cases contained in the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill; notes the overwhelming opposition to this proposal from all parts of the legal profession, including the Senators of the College of Justice, the Law Society of Scotland and the Faculty of Advocates, as well as the Scottish Police Federation, the Scottish Human Rights Commission, the Cross-Party Group on Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse and many legal academics; believes that the proposal to abolish corroboration cannot be looked at in isolation and that the Scottish Government’s Reforming Scots Criminal Law and Practice: Additional Safeguards Following the Removal of the Requirement for Corroboration consultation was inadequate to support a proposed change of this magnitude; notes with concern the implications of the abolition of corroboration, which would undermine confidence in the criminal justice system, and calls on the Scottish Government to remove the proposal to abolish corroboration from the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill and, instead, to seek to improve the application of corroboration by carrying out a wider review of the law of evidence in Scotland, including the interaction between corroboration and other rules of evidence, by either a referral to the Scottish Law Commission or a public inquiry.