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Modernising Justice in Scotland: The Reform of the High Court of Justiciary
Chapter 2: CONSULTATION
- Lord Bonomy’s report, ‘Improving Practice’ was published for consultation on 11 December 2002. The consultation period closed on 11 April 2003. We undertook separate specific consultation with those who have experience of the system, including victims, jurors and accused on remand/ sentenced prisoners. We also used focus groups to consult members of the public.
- The responses were varied but broadly supportive of Lord Bonomy’s recommendations, in particular the principal objective of bringing more order and a greater degree of certainty to the conduct and proceedings of the High Court. In what follows, we give an analysis of how we have arrived at our decisions on the way forward, drawing on the views of consultees.
- A summary of responses to consultation will be published shortly. Some consultees asked that their response be kept confidential. The non-confidential responses may be obtained on request from the Scottish Government.
- There has been very full consultation on the proposals
made by Lord Bonomy. Although, therefore, comments on this
White Paper are welcome, we are not repeating that full scale
consultation again. We think Lord Bonomy has given us a solid,
credible package for reform and are therefore taking it forward
as a whole, albeit with some adjustments which the White
Paper spells out. Comments submitted as part of the earlier
consultation, where appropriate, have been taken account
of in the drafting of this White Paper.
THE APPROACH IN THIS PAPER
- The next section of this paper summarises our proposals for implementing Lord Bonomy’s review. While this is presented in terms of problems and solutions, the proposals must be seen as a package in which the elements are integrally linked and in which dropping any one aspect could substantially weaken the impact of the package as a whole. It is even more important to bear this in mind in the remainder of the paper as we go through each main area setting out how our proposals would address the issues identified, what our consultees said, and how the proposals will be implemented, including the resource implications. The subject matter of these latter sections is technical but we aim to explain the relevant law and practice in as simple terms as possible for the lay reader.
- Finally, we list in an annex the extent to which we intend to apply changes proposed for the High Court also to the sheriff and jury courts.