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The Chief Executive of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service is calling for action to help ensure Scotland's justice system is equipped to meet growing demands.
The call from Malcolm Graham comes as the latest criminal court modelling projects almost three times the number of High Court indictments this year, compared with three years ago.
The latest Scottish Government statistics show that the median journey from a crime first being known to the police to a High Court verdict was 123 weeks in 2024-25, around two years and four months. The court stage, measured from court registration to verdict, accounted for 45 weeks of that journey.
The latest modelling projects that the average wait for the court stage of this process alone in High Court cases could rise to 135 weeks by 2028-29, adding significantly to the time victims, witnesses and accused people wait for resolution.
Malcolm Graham highlighted that such delays and uncertainty can have a considerable impact on victims, witnesses, accused persons and their families, and present challenges to the collective ambition of delivering a trauma-informed and victim-centred justice system.
He said:
"The criminal justice journey must be reformed from end to end so that national justice organisations can operate as a more coherent system.
“Unless we consider significant reforms in how we manage our most serious cases, the continued rise in serious and complex criminal business is likely to result in longer delays in securing justice for victims, increased pressure on prisons and additional challenges across the wider justice system.
“Simply adding more capacity or replacing individual technology systems will not provide a sustainable long-term solution, as there are implications for prosecutors, defence lawyers, victim support organisations, criminal justice social work and other justice partners.
“End-to-end reform, supported by sustained investment, is needed to deliver shorter and more reliable case journeys, improve data and remove avoidable delay and duplication.”
The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service has developed proposals that would require an investment of around £62 million over five years to reform criminal case management, redesign court processes and introduce modern digital case management.
This would pave the way for wider reform, which is being explored by the criminal justice system through Joining Up Justice programme and supporting more effective and efficient working across the criminal case journey.
Substantial progress has been made in reducing court backlogs and waiting times across Scotland's courts, with scheduled trials now at their lowest level of just under 13,000, compared with 43,000 in January 2022. Average waiting times have reduced from 45 weeks in 2022/23 to around 30 weeks today.
The High Court, however, has experienced a sustained increase in the volume of cases, significantly above levels seen in previous years. Overall, the number of High Court indictments as forecast by COPFS, is expected to exceed 2,700 this year, compared with 935 in 2023/24, while the average time between pleading diet and trial is projected to increase from around 50 weeks currently to 135 weeks in 2028/29.
The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service has already taken significant steps to increase capacity across the criminal justice system. However, capacity measures alone are unlikely to be sufficient given the volume and complexity of cases continuing to place pressure on the system.
