The SCTS has been re-accredited for meeting the CSE standard in 2018.
This year’s award is based on the assessors reviewing corporate evidence and visiting 
the Sheriff and Justice of the Peace Courts in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hamilton, Lanark, Paisley and Perth; Saltmarket in Glasgow; IT Unit and HR Unit in SCTS Headquarters; OPG; and Tribunals Operations Hamilton.
The then Scottish Court Service first gained CSE accreditation in 2013 – with sheriffdoms, the supreme courts, the OPG and HQ having gained it at unit level in 2011 and 2012. We have now been assessed over a three year rolling programme against 57 elements, grouped under the headings:
- customer insight
- culture of the organisation
- information & access
- delivery
- timeliness & quality of service.
This year thirteen elements were given the highest rating of ‘compliance plus’ (outstanding) – up from eleven in 2017; 42 elements were rated ‘fully compliant’ (satisfactory); and only two were rated ‘partially compliant’ (improvement needed) – one fewer than in 2017.
This is a big improvement on our 2013 assessment when seven elements were rated ‘partially compliant’, and only four were rated ‘compliance plus’.
SCTS Chief Executive Eric McQueen said: “In their report, the CSE assessors recognise the ‘well respected and high quality service’ which our staff take huge pride in delivering. To achieve CSE improvement year on year is a great recognition for the hard work of everyone in SCTS and confirms their real commitment to supporting all of our service users.”
This accreditation follows the latest results from the SCTS court user satisfaction survey undertaken in 2017 which showed that the overall satisfaction level improved from 89% to 92%.