Further to my post #35 of 10th April 2018 I wrote to the First Minister of Scotland on 10th Dec 2018 and pointed out the following,
Over the years Lord Advocates have not shown any appetite to hold FAIs into a military death in Scotland. I now call on the Scottish government to set up a Public Inquiry into how it has been possible, for forty years, for successive Lord Advocates to avoid holding any discretionary FAIs on public interest grounds for military deaths in Scotland. According to a recent report, 'Beyond Endurance - Military Exercises and the Duty of Care', dated 24th April 2016, there were 13 military training/exercise deaths in Scotland between Jan 2000 and Feb 2016, not a single one resulted in an FAI (confirmed in an FOI letter from COPFS). In 1990 when a Lossiemouth Shackleton crashed on South Harris, killing a crew of 10, the UK parliament was informed that an FAI would not be held and the Lord Advocate does not have to give reasons. From April 1977 to Nov 1987 RAF Lossiemouth lost eight Jaguar aircraft and nine crew members, but no FAI. Of these losses Lord Mackay of Clashfern has informed me that he remembers these accidents and remembers discussing them with a senior RAF officer in Glasgow, but has no memory of discussing an FAI.
In the First Minister's reply it is pointed out that,
"Any decision by the Lord Advocate in his capacity as head of the systems of criminal prosecution and investigation of deaths in Scotland shall continue to be taken by him independently of any other person"
Up until mid 2017 there was little chance of any independent inquiry being carried out in Scotland for a military death, probably due to a Lord Advocate/MoD protocol.
DV