SCOTLAND'S SHERIFF officers have accused the Crown Office of riding roughshod over government ministers after justice secretary Kenny MacAskill reneged on his pre-election pledge that officers should be allowed to deliver criminal witness citations.

The move was meant to leave police, who currently carry out the task, free for frontline duties. MacAskill has told the professional body that represents the centuries-old post - responsible for debt collection, delivering defence witness citations, and dealing with the uplift of children from parents who have lost access cases - that he will no longer consider their requests to implement the issue.

He defended his decision on the grounds that the issue was not raised during the recent parliamentary inquiry into police resources. The inquiry led to the creation of a wide-ranging review headed by Paddy Tomkins, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary, with the aim of ensuring that high-profile operations do not divert resources away from frontline policing in communities.

The decision is a near-fatal blow to the Society of Messengers-at-Arms and Sheriff Officers' long-running campaign to open up the delivery of citations to its members The body claimed MacAskill promised to find out how much of a burden the deliveries were on police resources at a recent meeting, which the Crown Office attended. He said before the SNP's election win that police officers were being treated as "surrogate posties" and Royal Mail or sheriff officers should deliver citations.

In 2006, 100,000 police hours were spent on the process, with an average delivery time of 30 minutes. Courts have examined alternatives, including using civilian police staff and piloted email and text services to inform witnesses about pending court appearances.

Stewart Hunter, vice-president of the society, claimed the minister made the decision under pressure from the Crown Office, which wanted debate about the issue suppressed. He added they were not asked to contribute to the parliamentary inquiry.

He said: "My impressions throughout this, and after dealing with the last Labour administration, is that this policy is completely driven by the Crown Office and not the ministers. It doesn't strike me as a way to run a country. The Crown Office has paid no regard to the amount of police resources it would save. All it is concerned with is safeguarding its own position."

In a letter to MacAskill, Hunter added: "I am quite frankly astonished that the matter is simply now being dismissed. I cannot believe that you consider the justification for this dismissal stands up to any scrutiny.

"The subject was not put before the committee in the public forum. This clearly suited the agenda of your own civil servants and the Crown Office, who do not want this issue debated."

Hunter, who called on MacAskill to honour his pre-election pledge, added: "Your parting words as we left the meeting were that your door was always open. That open door is quite worthless if any commitment you have given is withdrawn once the door is closed."

Joe Grant, general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, said: "We all agree that police officers' time must not be wasted and I will be raising this with the government this week at their Police Efficiencies project group."

A Scottish government spokesman said the issue was an operational matter for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. He added: "In recent years, the Crown Office has significantly increased the volume of witness citations carried out by post and the police are only involved in citations where the Crown Office consider it necessary - such as where postal citation has failed or a vulnerable witness is involved.

"The Justice Committee recently conducted an inquiry into the effective use of police resources and did not comment on whether the police should play less of a role in serving witness citations. There was also no mention of this issue in the subsequent parliamentary debate on the Justice Committee's report."