Advocate General for Scotland Lord Keen facing firearms charge

THE UK Government’s most senior adviser on Scots law has been charged with a firearms offence.

Advocate General for Scotland Lord Keen of Elie QC is alleged to have contravened section two of the Firearms Act 1968 by failing to secure a shotgun.

Lord Keen, who is a former chairman of the Scottish Conservative Party and was made a life peer in 2015, is charged with breaching the legislation at his Edinburgh home on December 31 last year.

According to court papers, he is alleged to have failed to comply with the conditions of his firearms certificate by not securing a 12-bore shotgun. The charge states that, according to the conditions, shotguns must at all times “be stored securely so as to prevent, so far as reasonably practicable, access to the shotguns by unauthorised persons”.

A statement from Lord Keen’s spokesman said: “Lord Keen deeply regrets this inadvertent breach of licence conditions, which was a one-off error. He has held a licence for many years and has always adhered strictly to the licence conditions.”

A UK Government spokeswoman said: “We are aware Lord Keen is in correspondence with the procurator fiscal regarding a legal matter relating to an inadvertent breach of licence conditions.”