(728)  MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING AGAIN

 

Scots Law News No 713 drew attention to James Chalmers’ blog commentary on the proposed extension to the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2005 announced by the Minister for Public Health, Shona Robison.  The 2005 Act increased sentencing powers in summary cases where an accused was convicted assaults on certain health workers from the then statutory maximum of 6 months to 9 months (and from the implementation of the Criminal Proceedings etc (Scotland) Act 2007 to 12 months).  However, .it seemed to have been superseded by the general reforms to summary criminal cases by the Criminal Proceedings etc (Scotland) Act 2007 – which increased the maximum sentence to 12 months imprisonment across the board.

 

James Chalmers had suggested that,

 

the fact that the proposal is useless is unlikely to lead to any dispute: it can hardly be said to do any harm