Hansard

I am grateful for the opportunity to consider some of the most important challenges that our justice system faces. I want to use the time to build on my recent productive discussions with other parties’ justice spokespeople on how we can deliver on the Government’s ambition to achieve a faster, fairer and more effective justice system for the people of Scotland.

The Covid pandemic and essential public health measures have posed severe challenges to the operation of our justice system. That has been the case for jurisdictions internationally. We are under no illusions about the major impact of the pandemic, and I am sure that members across the chamber will be keen to highlight that existing pressures were building across the justice system pre-Covid. It is therefore appropriate to reflect on the actions that have been taken and on the progress that has been made across the sector during the period.

The Scottish Government responded swiftly to the immediate challenges of Covid-19, and the Parliament passed two emergency coronavirus acts—the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 and the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No 2) Act 2020—which continue to provide vital powers and measures to help protect the public, maintain essential public services and support the economy during the current outbreak of the coronavirus.

Remote jury centres are an example of such measures, and I was fortunate enough to visit a centre yesterday. The use of cinema complexes as a base for jury centres has enabled the jury trials that deal with the most serious cases to continue after they first restarted in July last year.

The Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service’s quarterly statistical bulletin, which was published last week, shows that, despite the challenges at the High Court in recent months, evidence-led trials have been running at an even higher level than was the case pre-Covid, which is a huge achievement.

The resumption of court business was possible only because of the collaborative efforts of our justice partners, third sector organisations and the judiciary and defence community to innovate and embrace new ideas. In the chamber today, we should praise all those who were involved in ensuring the continuation of justice during this most challenging period.

As is the position in England and Wales, the justice system in Scotland faces challenges and significant backlogs of cases that existing capacity or resources cannot address. We have therefore committed an additional £50 million in this year’s budget to further support recovery across the justice system. That includes a capacity increase in both the High Court and the sheriff court.

In our civil justice system, in which backlogs remain, great progress has been made to manage recovery through the use of virtual proceedings, the electronic transfer of documents and innovative digital solutions. Although restrictions greatly hampered their delivery of face-to-face services, our community justice delivery partners have continued to support a wide range of community justice services throughout the pandemic, with a focus on prioritising vulnerable people and those who present an imminent and serious risk of harm.

One of our key priorities throughout the pandemic was to ensure that victims continued to be supported, to feel reassured and to have confidence in the justice system. We were particularly aware of the risks for women and children who were experiencing gender-based violence, so we provided an additional £5.75 million to front-line services so that they could respond to an increase in demand from victims of abuse. We also increased Victim Support Scotland’s victims fund to help meet the immediate financial needs of the most vulnerable victims during the pandemic.

Our prisons are a unique setting, and additional measures have been required to keep those who live and work in prison safe. We took important action to ensure that those in prison could maintain family contact through virtual visits and the use of mobile phones or in-cell phones across the estate. To the credit of prison and national health service staff, the virus has been well controlled in our prisons, although of course we must remain vigilant.

A challenge remains in relation to remand cases—the people who are in prison but who have yet to have their trial or who are awaiting their sentence. The number of people on remand has gone up during the pandemic at a time when overall prisoner numbers have reduced. Although decisions on bail and remand are a matter for the independent judiciary, the Scottish Government has taken steps to ensure that community-based alternatives to remand are available. At the end of last year, the Scottish Government introduced regulations to allow the electronic monitoring of people on bail. A number of justice partners have been working to prepare for that change and, subject to all partners completing that work successfully, the process can be fully commenced after the summer.