Secret guidelines telling prosecutors which offences should be dealt with by fixed penalty fines were defended yesterday by Scotland's Justice Secretary.

Kenny MacAskill accused defence lawyers who have demanded that the guidelines be published of “special pleading”. They have claimed that the Crown Office should reveal the guidelines in an attempt to allay suspicions that serious offences are being treated too lightly.

According to a BBC Radio Scotland investigation, secret guidelines include a rumoured “three stitch rule” under which anyone causing a knife wound of three stitches or less should be fined rather than being sent to court.

The Crown yesterday denied the existence of the three stitch rule.

Mr MacAskill said that the fines were about looking after the interests of the community rather than the interests of defence lawyers.

The Justice Secretary, who has sought an increased use of fines in an attempt to tackle Scotland's growing prison overcrowding, said that it was not for him to direct the Crown on the matter. “I think the correct balance is served for the public,” he said. “We know what is meant to be dealt with in summary justice reforms - that

it should be less serious offences, that it will not be domestic violence, that it will not be serious assaults, it will not be sexual assaults.

“As for the specific matters, these matters are not routinely released and there is no reason they should be.”

The position had been upheld by the Information Commissioner, and government ministers could not direct the Lord Advocate, he said.

“What we have to look at is the reality on the ground and not the special pleading from vested interests. Before I became an MSP I was a defence solicitor,” he added. “We can't go back to the situation where we routinely had lawyers tendering pleas of not guilty, and anything up to 18 months later the accused put their hands up and had a fine imposed for a relatively minor offence.

“This isn't just about looking after the interests of lawyers for the accused. We have to fundamentally look after the interests of our community.”

The Scottish Prisons Commission has given warning that the prison population will reach 8,700 by 2016, and said that it must be cut to 5,000.

At the time, Mr MacAskill said the situation was unacceptable. “We cannot go on as we are, because if we do, our prisons are going to burst at the seams.”

But this month lawyers claimed that many violent criminals are not being charged because of a drive to reduce congestion in Scottish courts.

Colin Bissett, a defence lawyer from Airdrie, told The Investigation, a BBC Radio Scotland documentary: “We have heard all sorts of rumours as to what these guidelines are - famously the three-stitch rule.

“That's anecdotal, we've heard that unofficially, but we don't know if that's in the guidelines.

“Our suspicion is that it is in the guidelines and the real reason why these guidelines are not being disclosed is that the public would be frankly disgusted at the way in which they are treating cases of this nature.”

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