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The Herald Scotland
02-07-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Legal aid for Murrell could end if SNP repays loan
According to the Electoral Commission's finance database, the party still owes Mr Murrell £60,000 from a loan payment of £107,620 'to assist with cashflow' in June 2021. READ MORE Mr Murrell was first arrested in April 2023 as part of the police investigation into the SNP's finances. He appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in March this year, where he faced a charge of embezzlement, making no plea. Until he stood down in 2023 during the leadership race to succeed his now estranged wife, Nicola Sturgeon, he had been chief executive of the SNP for more than 20 years. SLAB said no payments have been made so far, following a successful application for solemn legal aid by Mr Murrell's lawyers on April 30. A spokesperson said that when assessing someone's eligibility for legal aid, they consider the applicant's financial position at the time of the application, including salary, bank balance and any investments. 'Peter Murrell's application met the tests we have to apply when deciding whether to grant legal aid,' they said. SLAB's guidance indicates that debts owed to an applicant may be counted as capital, particularly if the money is recoverable. However, the board has discretion to disregard these assets if they are deemed 'trapped' or not readily accessible. Mr Murrell and Ms Sturgeon are to divorce (Image: Newsquest) The Herald asked SLAB whether the £60,000 owed by the SNP was factored into Mr Murrell's assessment, and whether that sum could be clawed back by the legal aid board if repaid in future. SLAB was also asked whether the SNP's status as both debtor and alleged victim of embezzlement had any impact on its decision-making. A spokesperson said: 'We cannot comment on the specifics of an individual's application for legal aid. 'Any grant of legal aid is made on the condition that we must be advised of any change of financial circumstances during the lifetime of a case. 'If any material change means the client is no longer eligible to continue to receive legal aid, we will terminate the grant.' Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr said: 'The public will be rightly outraged if the SNP's failure to repay their £60,000 debt to Peter Murrell is the reason why Scottish taxpayers are picking up the tab for his legal costs. 'The SNP should have severed all ties with their disgraced former chief executive years ago. They must explain why they have still not repaid this loan, given it now appears to be directly hitting hardworking Scots in the pocket.' The SNP has been approached for comment.
Scotsman
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Scotsman
Peter Murrell: Ex-SNP chief has legal aid approved as taxpayers foot bill for embezzlement charge
Nicola Sturgeon's husband has had a legal aid application approved. Sign up to our Politics newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell is poised to have his legal costs covered by taxpayers after being charged with embezzlement. Mr Murrell, the husband of former first minister Nicola Sturgeon, 'met the tests' for an application of legal aid to be approved. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell has been charged in connection with alleged embezzlement of party funds | PA (Press Association) The 60-year-old was chief executive 9of the SNP for more than 20 years before quitting in 2023. He was later arrested during Operation Branchform - the police investigation into the party's finances - before being released without charge. Mr Murrell, who has separated from Ms Sturgeon, was then charged with embezzlement and appeared in court in March. Ms Sturgeon has been cleared of any wrongdoing. The Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) has confirmed an application for solemn legal aid by Mr Murrell's solicitors was approved on April 30 and no payments have been made so far. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A spokesperson for the SLAB told the Daily Record: 'When assessing an applicant's eligibility for legal aid, we look at their financial position at the time of their application to ensure they meet tests set by legal aid legislation. 'This includes information they give us about their salary, the amount of money they have in the bank and any investments, which might be available to fund their own defence privately. 'Peter Murrell's application met the tests we have to apply when deciding whether to grant legal aid.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Mr Murrell's final SNP salary has not been published, but the party's 2023 accounts showed his successor, Murray Foote, started on £95,000. Mr Murrell appeared at a private petition hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in March, making no plea or declaration and was committed for further examination and bailed. There are no dates set for a future hearing. Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: 'Taxpayers will be scratching their heads at why they should have to foot the bill for Peter Murrell - a man who has been charged with embezzlement. Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie | PA 'It is also particularly galling that Peter Murrell will be receiving legal aid after the SNP Government has repeatedly ignored warnings about the financial pressures raised by lawyers." Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Silicon Labs: Q1 Earnings Snapshot
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Silicon Laboratories Inc. (SLAB) on Tuesday reported a loss of $30.5 million in its first quarter. The Austin, Texas-based company said it had a loss of 94 cents per share. Losses, adjusted for stock option expense and amortization costs, came to 8 cents per share. The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 9 cents per share. The chipmaker posted revenue of $177.7 million in the period, also beating Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $177.6 million. For the current quarter ending in June, Silicon Labs expects its results to range from a loss of 1 cent per share to earnings of 19 cents per share. _____ This story was generated by Automated Insights ( using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on SLAB at
Washington Post
13-05-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Silicon Labs: Q1 Earnings Snapshot
AUSTIN, Texas — AUSTIN, Texas — Silicon Laboratories Inc. (SLAB) on Tuesday reported a loss of $30.5 million in its first quarter. The Austin, Texas-based company said it had a loss of 94 cents per share. Losses, adjusted for stock option expense and amortization costs, came to 8 cents per share.
The National
12-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
Domestic abuse survivors being let down by legal aid
My mother and I saw the failures of Scottish legal aid first hand after fleeing more than a decade of coercive control. And at every step, women of colour face barriers made worse by a lack of cultural awareness, urgency, and empathy. Until legal aid improves not just in access but also in quality, it will continue to retraumatise those it is meant to protect. Accessing a civil legal aid solicitor in Scotland is nearly impossible. Survivors often face complex legal battles – divorces involving property, fraud, or serving papers to abusers who have fled abroad. Few solicitors can afford to take these cases on at legal aid rates. As the 2024 Annual Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) report shows, legal aid firms are in steep decline, leaving survivors stranded. We called more than 100 firms from the Law Society of Scotland and Scottish Women's Rights Centre directories. The few who answered said we might not qualify for legal aid. Although we were destitute, the board treated a potential future claim to a remortgaged house – requiring the abuser's co-operation – as evidence of my mother's wealth. Meanwhile, the abuser, safely abroad, weaponised expensive lawyers. We had no solicitor to respond, no safety net. Even with a solicitor, survivors must reapply to SLAB for every court order and justify urgency each time, with no real-time support. Solicitors often step back until funding is approved, leaving survivors – many of them non-native speakers – to navigate a complex system alone. Children are often pulled in as default interpreters. I usually find the stereotype of migrant kids doing their parents' paperwork offensive. But coercive control erodes confidence. Despite my mother's education, years of fear and gaslighting left her unable to navigate the process alone. So I stepped in to translate. As an adult, I could bear that burden – but in other families, the daughter filling out the legal aid form might still be in her school uniform. This lack of support not only isolates survivors, it also places a burden on children already being forced to grow up too soon. Our first application for a civil protection order was rejected, exposing the board's lack of cultural awareness. Following Sri Lankan custom, our abuser's documents listed both his cultural and given names. The board misread this as my mother trying to divorce two men and denied our claim. Worse, they cited the abuser's possible absence from the UK – a common issue for migrant survivors – as another reason to refuse. Despite an active police warrant, he travels freely between Sri Lanka and the UK and his whereabouts are unknown. Scottish legal aid fails women of colour not only through access barriers but also in the quality of service provided. Once my mother was finally granted advice and assistance through legal aid, the support she received was slow, impersonal, and devoid of empathy. During the entire course of her case, her solicitors never saw her face. Like many legal aid clients post-pandemic, our only contact was through crackling phone lines and unanswered emails. Recounting rape and coercive control to a voice on the phone – with no warmth, no facial cues – is profoundly alienating. The delays were staggering. Just securing a phone appointment took weeks. There was unanswered emails, gatekeeping by legal secretaries, missed calls, and repeated cancellations. When we learned a bank had repossessed and was trying to sell our family home, we begged our solicitor to get an injunction. If the house was sold, then we would have to rely on the abuser's co-operation to claim equity. However, he had fled abroad again. It took us nearly two months to get a phone appointment. The solicitor changed or missed the call five times. Weeks of emails – including those from Women's Aid, which stepped in on our behalf – were ignored. Only after a senior Women's Aid practitioner intervened, citing my mother's cancer diagnosis and the impact the stress of this case was causing to her health, did the firm finally respond. By then, the house had already been sold. The solicitor didn't even know until we told her. This wasn't an isolated experience. Many women of colour on legal aid feel deprioritised, while those who pay privately receive timely, personalised support. Legal aid clients, who are disproportionately women of colour, are left chasing solicitors who offer generic advice, disconnected from the realities of migrant survivors. Our solicitor dismissed the cross-border complexities of our case, assuring my mother, wrongly, that the law could force her fugitive abuser to agree to a fair settlement. When the house sale went through and our hopes of equity vanished abroad, she deflected blame, implying my mother had misunderstood her poor advice due to a language barrier. She even suggested my mother sounded confused and needed a translator. Survivors can't even hold poor legal service to account, as doing so risks losing the only representation they have. Filing a complaint with the Scottish Legal Aid Board feels impossible when there are so few solicitors willing to take on legal aid cases in the first place. As the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill moves through the Scottish Parliament, we have a rare chance to make civil legal aid truly work for survivors. While the bill includes important measures to prevent retraumatisation in court, many survivors never even make it that far. Expanding legal aid eligibility and funding more firms is vital, but it only solves part of the problem. The most devastating failures come after survivors find representation – when delays, miscommunication, and impersonal service compound trauma. For women from migrant and minority communities, these failures are intensified by cultural blind spots and a lack of trauma-informed care. Coercive control thrives on making victims feel isolated and helpless. When legal processes are cold, confusing, or dismissive, they become just another form of control. For my mother, legal aid promised protection but the system felt more like her abuser than her advocate. Unless we rehumanise the legal aid service and rebuild it with the needs of diverse survivors at its core, victims' rights will remain theoretical. We cannot settle for paper rights and promised equities. Civil legal aid must be reformed – urgently and equitably. The name of the writer of this piece is being withheld
