This was extended to include summary cases by Statutory Instrument on 31 March 1999,[1] immediately before the Commission took up its role in April 1999.

The commission's role is to review and investigate cases where it is alleged that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred in relation to conviction, sentence or both.

Chief Executive, Gerard Sinclair, says that normally the court rules about half the referrals to be a miscarriage of justice each year, which would equate in 2003 to roughly 0.005% of the total number of Scottish criminal convictions.

Former SCCRC member, William Taylor QC, who acted as senior counsel for Megrahi at the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial and at his appeal in 2002, resigned as a commissioner on 23 September 2003.

This was the same day as the SCCRC received an application from solicitors acting on Megrahi's behalf, requesting that it review his conviction.

Professor Hans Köchler, who was appointed by UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to observe the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial at Camp Zeist, Netherlands was reported to be baffled by the SCCRC's four-year delay in reaching a conclusion.

Köchler said: Following the SCCRC's decision on 28 June 2007 to refer the case back for a second appeal, Köchler expressed surprise at the focus of the commission's review and its apparent bias in favour of the judicial establishment: On 4 July 2007 Köchler wrote to Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond, to Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, to Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, and to FCO Minister of State with responsibility for Africa, Asia and the UN, Mark Malloch Brown describing the SCCRC's decision as "long overdue" and calling for a full and independent public inquiry into the Lockerbie case.