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Appointment of Sheriff
02/11/2007
HM the Queen has approved the appointment of Robert Brown Anthony, QC, as a sheriff.
First Minister Alex Salmond nominated Mr Anthony, 45, for appointment on the basis of a report by the independent Judicial Appointments Board.
Sheriff Anthony will have a commission enabling him to serve where required throughout Scotland's 49 sheriff courts but in practice it is expected he will sit mostly in the sheriffdom of Glasgow and Strathkelvin.
Admitted as a solicitor in 1984 and to the Faculty of Advocates in 1988, Mr Anthony took silk in 2002. He served as an Advocate Depute, and latterly as a senior Advocate Depute, from 2001 until 2004. In July 2005 Mr Anthony was appointed as a part-time sheriff. He was appointed a Commissioner of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission in March 2007.
The appointment arises from the consequential vacancy arising on the Shrieval bench following the appointment earlier this year of Sheriff Hugh Matthews QC to be a Senator of the College of Justice.
The salary of a sheriff is £123,200.
The Judicial Appointments Board was established by Ministers in 2001. The Board is an independent advisory body whose role is to recommend names of new judges, sheriffs principal, sheriffs and part-time sheriffs to the First Minister who retains the statutory responsibility for making nominations to Her Majesty the Queen.
Ministers invited the Board to run a recruitment exercise to fill vacancies for "floating" sheriffs whose commissions enable them to serve where needed throughout the country. The Board advertised these vacancies and interviewed a shortlist of candidates before submitting recommendations to the First Minister.
As required by statute, the First Minister consulted the Lord President of the Court of Session before making his nomination to the Queen.