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 May 2023:
- The overall level of new cases registered is 88% of the average pre-COVID level.
- The overall level of cases concluded is 92% of the average pre-COVID level.
- Petitions, which provide a useful indicator of future solemn business, are 21% higher than the average monthly pre-COVID level.
- 79 High Court evidence led trials commenced which is 190% of the average pre-COVID level.
- 82 High Court cases were concluded, which is 122% of the average pre-COVID level.
- The average time between pleading diet and evidence led trial is 45 weeks for High Court, compared to the pre-COVID level of 22 weeks.
- 113 sheriff solemn evidence led trials commenced which is 120% of the average pre-COVID level.
- 723 sheriff solemn cases were concluded which is 149% of the average pre-COVID level.
- The average time between pleading diet and evidence led trial is 45 weeks for sheriff solemn, compared to the pre-COVID level of 11 weeks.
- 437 sheriff summary evidence led trials commenced, which is 75% of the average pre-COVID levels
- 5,286 sheriff summary cases were concluded which is 102% of the average pre-COVID level.
- The average time between pleading diet and evidence led trial is 42 weeks for sheriff summary, compared to the pre-COVID level of 23 weeks.
- 1,728 Justice of the Peace cases were concluded which is 63% 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 public holidays the number of scheduled trials increased by 1% during May.
“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 made on the summary backlog ,we 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. The switch shows that solemn throughput has increased significantly.
"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.”
The workbook is available at: http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/official-statistics