Nothing would be gained from re-opening the Shirley McKie case, and doing so could result in a long-running and costly echo of the Bloody Sunday inquiry, according to Scottish Police Services Authority chief David Mulhern.

The SPSA is responsible for the new Scottish Forensic Service, successor to the Scottish Criminal Records Office (SCRO), which was at the centre of the long-running and politically damaging McKie case.

McKie was accused by SCRO of leaving a thumbprint at a murder scene in Kilmarnock in 1997. She subsequently challenged this ruling, leading to a perjury trial and compensation case against the previous Executive.

In 2006, the Parliament’s then Justice 1 Committee held an inquiry into the affair, making a number of recommendations regarding the undertaking of fingerprinting services in Scotland.

The new Scottish Government has a manifesto commitment to launching a new inquiry into the McKie affair, and a spokesperson for the Government confirmed this inquiry would go ahead.

Mulhern says these recommendations have been taken on board by the SPSA and that the Justice 1 inquiry should stand as the final word on the matter.

“I think the parliament report did allow the boil to be lanced and allowed people the opportunity to say what they wanted to say and there was a sense, I think, from the people involved directly that somebody external had listened to the issues, and I think, allowed them impartially.

“We now have resolution, so I’m not sure that any inquiry that sought to re-open that would give us anything further but I know there is the intention to have something and personally, I am interested to see what that is intended to do,” he said.

Asked if he felt another McKie inquiry could become like the Bloody Sunday inquiry, where parties with fixed positions argued for years at great public cost, Mulhern said: “Yes, I think that’s a very good analogy.”

Elsewhere, Mulhern describes how he sees the SPSA expanding over the next five years, and explains how his organisation will deliver efficiency savings across Scotland’s eight police forces.