John Scott QC Solicitor Advocate – Partner at Capital Defence Lawyers

I was instructed as Senior Counsel in a high profile murder retrial. It was a complex case involving an allegation from 14 years earlier.

We received a huge amount of disclosure from the Crown which led to many additional witnesses being considered.

It was essential to get a clear picture of what certain witnesses (Crown and possible defence witnesses) now recalled.

In order to make the necessary judgmements on which witnesses should be used we needed full, detailed and reliable precognitions. George provided us with these.
In addition, however, George looked at matters from the perspective of a retired senior detective, and actually suggested other areas we should consider. He helped us to understand the thinking of the police inquiry team, and to see areas where things should have been handled differently.

As a former National Lead for Disclosure for the police in Scotland, and having developed the ACPOS Manual of Guidance and National Training programme, he also guided us through the intriciacies of the Crown’s disclosure schedules.
George’s work was first class. It was provided whenever we needed it, even when some of it was given to him at very short notice.

He contributed significantly to the work of our team.

I hope to be able to work with George again and I have no hesitation in recommending him to anyone who needs such work carried out.

The Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland has used Barnsley & Barnsley to deliver a number of courses to our enforcement community which have been excellent, well-received and specifically tailored to our needs and the wider Specialist Reporting Agency community. We are happy to endorse them.

Fantastic training providers.
They have the necessary personnel, topic experience as well as having many trainers who have specific experience in delivering specialist subjects. Great to see local authorities utilising this type of training to assist in their day job. We have had multiple courses run by George Barnsley and his team and we have had nothing but success and great feedback from delegates.

Training has been invaluable.
The Investigation Skills training course that Barnsley & Barnsley provided to the Environmental Health Commercial Team has been invaluable. It was an extremely interesting, informative and entertaining course that has ensured that officers have the necessary knowledge to undertake effective investigations and has also increased officers confidence in undertaking complex investigations.

Andrew Morrison
Commercial Team Manager

Training delivery at the highest level

The course on Evidence Gathering and Interview Skills that you recently delivered for the Scottish AH&W Panel was very well received by those attending. All 18 candidates rated the course as 5 out of 5 in feedback. A couple of typical statements made by those attending were, “Training delivery at the highest level” and “Excellent delivery as before”. Thank you once again for providing a well structured and very well delivered course.