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The Scottish criminal justice system operates with a number of core principles. One of the most important is the concept that crime should not pay.

After a person is convicted of a crime that they have financially benefitted from, the Crown can ask the Court to make a Confiscation Order under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. This is the route by which the criminal justice system seeks to remove financial gain from offending. 

Few expressions in criminal justice attract as much scrutiny as this one, and in recent days it has moved to the centre of controversial public debate. In the wake of widespread reporting on former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s police interview, two words have been dissected, criticised, and, in many quarters, plainly misunderstood.

It is, then, an apt moment to move beyond the noise and examine what “no comment” really means, and why it remains so significant in Scots criminal law.