The criminal cases involving Peter Murrell and Alex Salmond have undermined trust in Scotland's prosecution system, legal experts have told MPs.
Concerns were raised about the impact the handling of the two high-profile cases has had on the Lord Advocate role as a Westminster select committee held the first day of evidence on one of its two inquiries into the fallout from the former SNP chief executive's £400,000 embezzlement case.
Experts told the Scottish Affairs Committee that the Lord Advocate's dual role as the head of the independent prosecution service and also the Scottish Government's top legal adviser should be broken up.
It follows concerns about the impact that the decision by the last Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain to tip the First Minister John Swinney off about details of Murrell's case had on public trust.
Asked what impact Operation Branchform and the criminal case of the late former First Minister Alex Salmond had on public trust in the public prosecution system, Dr Andrew Tickell, head of the department of economics and law at Glasgow Caledonian University, told the committee: 'I do think that the underpinning tension has been there since devolution, that there are clearly tensions in these two roles (of the Lord Advocate) and we just haven't seen a case which has brought them quite so starkly into focus.
'But certainly I think it has given rise, empirically I'd say whether rightly or wrongly, to perceptions of confusion even about what is the public prosecutor doing sitting in the Cabinet of the Scottish Government.'
Dorothy Bain, right, was Lord Advocate at the time of the investigations into Murrell and Salmond, and was succeeded by Ruth Charteris, left
Questions have been raised about when the First Minister was given information from the Murrell case and when it was released to the public
He said it is 'undoubtedly true that these cases have given rise' to controversies.
Pressed by Labour MP Kirsteen Sullivan on whether the Lord Advocate sitting in Cabinet has 'undermined trust', Mr Tickell said: 'Yes. These are high-profile politicians being prosecuted. Therefore that inevitably raises questions.
'Some people believe they are guilty, not guilty, believe other people should have been prosecuted and so forth. Those are debates that have been prompted as a result of both of these investigations.
'The Crown Office's answer is these things will happen, politicians of every political party have ended up being prosecuted. But Scotland being a smaller jurisdiction I think it is more susceptible to some of these perceptions of bias.
'Clearly, the Crown Office have taken various steps to try and mitigate against that by having what they regard as a clear process of insulating decision making from involvement of the law officers, and I guess one of the things underpinning this inquiry is whether that is an adequate way of addressing these questions of public perception.'
Patricia Ferguson, the chairman of the committee, later clarified the remarks by highlighting that no politician was prosecuted in Operation Branchform.
Labour MP Lillian Jones highlighted that Ms Bain told Mr Swinney in March 2025 that prosecutors were alleging £460,000 had been embezzled by Mr Murrell but this information only entered the public domain 11 months later.
She asked if this information should have been shared sooner to avoid the suggestion that the First Minister benefited politically from the information.
Mr Tickell said: 'I can certainly see that it would be harder to make that argument if everybody had found out at the same time, certainly that's right.
'Should ministers find out these things at the same time as everybody else? It goes to that fundamental question. If that approach had been taken it would have certainly resolved the controversy that is in front of this committee at this point.'
Mr Tickell repeatedly told MPs that he is in favour of the Lord Advocate role being split up, and raised concerns about the possibility of bias.
Tory MP Douglas Lumsden said that 'the ordinary man on the street' doesn't think it is right that the Lord Advocate sits in Cabinet and that 'there could be a perception that information is being fed to the rest of the Government'.
Mr Tickell said: 'Yeah I think that absolutely would be an understandable perception that people might have.'
Referring to the Murrell case, he added: 'Clearly there has been controversy over whether Dorothy Bain was correct to share those factual updates with the First Minister on two occasions.'
Malcolm McMillan, a former chief executive of the Scottish Law Commission who previously advised the Scottish Government on the Lord Advocate role, said: 'One of the things, it seemed to me, of critical importance to put in the balance was this issue which this committee is questioning: perception. What are the perceptions?
'And I suppose down the line I would really like to see some kind of discussion about the perception of the public and what the effect is on the public confidence in the legal system, because public confidence is absolutely critical.'
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