Correspondence between First Minister and Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland (JABS): FOI release

Information requested

Any meetings or correspondence (including emails, attachments, typed or handwritten notes, letters, notes/records of phone calls, minutes of meetings, briefings or otherwise) between the First Minister and the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland or the Lord President of the Court of Session regarding the appointment of a judge to the Court of Session or the High Court of Justiciary. Please limit the time period to 1 January 2015 to the present date.

Response

I attach a copy of all of the information held by the Scottish Government which is within scope of your request.

Advice and assistance to put response into context

Recommendations for judicial appointments in Scotland are made by an independent body, the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland (JABS). Following a recruitment round, JABS sends a recommendation report to officials in the Scottish Government Civil Law ＆ Legal System Division. Further information on the JABS process can be found at Recommendations | JABS (judicialappointments.scot).

Section 95(4) of the Scotland Act requires the First Minister to consult with the Lord President before making her recommendations for judicial appointment to Her Majesty. In order to meet this statutory requirement, officials in the Scottish Government Civil Law ＆ Legal System Division send a letter to the Lord President inviting him to offer any views on the recommendations. On receipt of the response, the Lord President’s views are sent to the First Minister by the Judicial Appointments Manager with the recommendations from JABS.

Following receipt of the recommendations, the First Minister writes to the Chief Executive of JABS to thank them for the recommendation report.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI - 202100154340 - Information Released

File type

4 page PDF

File size

1.8 MB