The Advocate General has statutory functions under several enactments. His principal functions, which can also be exercised by other Law Officers, are under the Scotland Act 1998.
Schedule 6 to the Scotland Act requires that the Advocate General be provided with notice of all "devolution issues" raised before courts or tribunals in Scotland. This is to allow the Advocate General to intervene in proceedings on behalf of the UK Government if he so decides. "devolution issues" are defined in paragraph 1 of Schedule 6. In essence, devolution issues are concerned with the competence of the functions exercised by the Scottish Ministers (including the Lord Advocate) and of Acts of the Scottish Parliament.
In 2007, there were 663 devolution issues intimated to the Advocate General. Since devolution began in 1999, the large majority of devolution issues have been on human rights matters in relation to the actions of the Lord Advocate, the Rt Hon Elish Angiolini QC, and her prosecutors.
If you are a solicitor and wish to intimate a devolution issue to the Advocate General, please see the Service of Documents page for further details.
The Scotland Act separately gives the Advocate General power to begin proceedings for the determination of a devolution issue. He can require any court or tribunal to refer to the Supreme Court any devolution issue which has arisen in legal proceedings to which the Advocate General is a party or he can refer to the Supreme Court any devolution issue which is not the subject of existing proceedings. Until 2009, such cases were referred to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
The Advocate General has appeared in a large number of significant cases on behalf of the UK Government before the Court of Session, High Court of Justiciary, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the House of Lords, the Court of Justice of the European Union and now, the Supreme Court.
More information about the Advocate General's recent court appearances and interventions in devolution issues can be found in the Involvement in Cases section.
Under section 33 of the Scotland Act, the Advocate General has the power to refer Bills of the Scottish Parliament to the Supreme Court for decisions on their legislative competence. The Advocate General considers all Bills as they progress through the Scottish Parliament, in consultation with interested UK Government departments, to assess their legislative competency.