SCOTLAND'S most senior law officer, the Lord Advocate, is expected to resign within a matter of days amid calls to split the dual role.
According to the Times, James Wolffe QC and the solicitor general, Alison Di Rolla QC, are to leave office.
The Scottish Government will draw up candidate shortlists to replace them.
Wolffe’s five years in his dual role as head of the prosecution service and legal advisor to the Scottish Government – sitting in the cabinet – have been fraught by controversy.
In March, Alex Salmond called for him to resign over the botched handling of harassment complaints against the former SNP leader and first minister.
Salmond criticised the Crown Office, headed by Wolffe, over demands that his evidence to the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints, be redacted.
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Wolffe rejected what he referred to as “baseless” claims of political interference in the inquiry.
He also insisted that the dual elements of his role could be combined with integrity.
However, Labour and the Conservatives are arguing that the prosecutive responsibilities of the chief legal officer should be split.
Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s deputy leader, told The Times: “The SNP should use this opportunity to separate the role of the Lord Advocate as the independent head of the prosecution system from sitting in the cabinet and being a member of the government.
“In that way the post will in future be truly independent.”
In February, Wolffe issued a public apology to two men wrongfully prosecuted after a fraud investigation relating to the sale of Rangers Football Club.
He referred to it as a “very serious failure” in the prosecution system and the men were awarded more than £10 million each in damages.
Wolffe and Di Rollo were both appointed to their current roles in 2016.
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