SCTS News

The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service has published today the latest monthly workbook to show the throughput of criminal cases in our courts. 

Monthly Workbook

This shows the volumes of cases being progressed each month in the High Court, Sheriff Court and Justice of the Peace Courts from April 2020, compared against the monthly averages for 2019/20 (pre-COVID).

The figures show that during April 2023:

• The overall level of new cases registered is 82% of the average pre-COVID level.
• The overall level of cases concluded is 81% of the average pre-COVID level.
• Petitions, which provide a useful indicator of future solemn business, are 11% higher than the average monthly pre-COVID level.
• 52 High Court evidence led trials commenced which is 125% of the average pre-COVID level.
• 71 High Court cases were concluded, which is 106% of the average pre-COVID level.
• The average time between pleading diet and evidence led trial is 49 weeks for High Court, compared to the pre-COVID level of 22 weeks.
• 87 sheriff solemn evidence led trials commenced which is 92% of the average pre-COVID level.
• 608 sheriff solemn cases were concluded which is 125% of the average pre-COVID level.
• The average time between pleading diet and evidence led trial is 44 weeks for sheriff solemn, compared to the pre-COVID level of 11 weeks.
• 396 sheriff summary evidence led trials commenced, which is 68% of the average pre-COVID levels
• 4624 sheriff summary cases were concluded which is 89% of the average pre-COVID level.
• The average time between pleading diet and evidence led trial is 41 weeks for sheriff summary, compared to the pre-COVID level of 23 weeks.
• 1552 Justice of the Peace cases were concluded which is 56% of the average pre-COVID level.
• The average time between pleading diet and evidence led trial is 41 weeks for Justice of the Peace, compared to the pre-COVID level of 22 weeks.

David Fraser, SCTS Executive Director Court Operations said:

“With fewer court days due to Easter holidays the number of scheduled trials increased by 1% during April. We will likely see similar variations in the May data due to the number of public holidays.  

“However, through the court recovery programme we are aiming to return to a point where the number of scheduled cases being prepared for trial is around 20,000. Given the progress on summary trials we remain confident that summary backlog will be cleared by March 2024.

"We have now switched court recovery resources from summary to solemn, with the introduction of a further 2 additional High Court and 6 additional Sheriff Solemn trial courts. Solemn cases, which involves the most serious crimes, are more challenging as the long term trend of increasing case levels continued throughout the pandemic. Our modelling projects that with the new resources in place High Court cases will return to the revised baseline by March 2025 and Sheriff Solemn cases by March 2026.

"Strong collaboration across the judiciary, justice organisations, the legal profession and the third sector is helping to effectively manage court business, this will become even more important now that the solemn recovery programme has been extended.”