Secret guidelines telling prosecutors which offences should be dealt with by fixed penalty fines were yesterday defended by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, who accused lawyers who want the guidelines published of "special pleading".

Defence lawyers have claimed the Crown Office should reveal the guidelines to allay suspicions that serious offences are being treated too lightly.

Mr MacAskill said it was not for him to direct the Crown on the matter, and the Crown did not routinely make guidelines available for good reason. "I think the correct balance is served for the public," he said.

"We know what is meant to be dealt with in summary justice reforms - that it should be less serious offences, that it will not be domestic violence, that it will not be serious assaults, it will not be sexual assaults. As for the specific matters, these matters are not routinely released and there is no reason they should be."

This view had been upheld by the information commissioner, and government ministers could not direct the Lord Advocate, he said.

He said of the lawyers' criticism: "What we have to look at is the reality on the ground and not the special pleading from vested interests."

Fixed fines and penalties date back to the 1980s and had started off at £25, later increasing to £100 in the 1990s.

"Before I became an MSP I was a defence solicitor," he said. "We can't go back to the situation where we routinely had lawyers tendering pleas of not guilty, and anything up to 18 months later the accused put their hands up and had a fine imposed for a relatively minor offence.

"This isn't just about looking after the interests of lawyers for the accused. We have to fundamentally look after the interests of our community."

Defence lawyer Colin Bissett from Airdrie told a BBC Radio Scotland documentary: "We have heard all sorts of rumours as to what these guidelines are - famously the three-stitch rule.

"If someone is the victim of an assault but the resulting injury does not require three stitches or more, then it's appropriate for a person to be issued with a fixed penalty.

"That's anecdotal, we've heard than unofficially, but we don't know if that's in the guidelines. Our suspicion is that it is in the guidelines and the real reason why these guidelines are not being disclosed is that the public would be frankly disgusted at the way in which they are treating cases of this nature."

Crown Office head of policy John Logue, denying the three-stitches claim, told the documentary: "That rumour could really only be suggested by someone who did not understand the way in which these decisions are taken."