Meeting of the Parliament 09 May 2023
In the past few years, the complex challenges of the justice system have been widely discussed in this Parliament. That system and our legal processes face chronic issues and are in much in need of improvement. A new approach to Scotland’s justice system is important not only for those who encounter that system but for all Scottish people, so that they can feel safer in their communities.
All political parties agree that the justice process must be made easier and more supportive for victims. Although some parts of the Scottish Government’s perceived new vision for the justice system seem to promise steps in the right direction, the work has been unremarkable in practice. Progress on delivery has been far too slow, resulting in many victims feeling constantly let down or lacking confidence in a justice system that is meant to support them. The SNP’s soft-touch approach to justice clearly has not worked, and I hope that the bill will not be another document that gathers dust on a shelf at the back of a Government office.
Victims are at the heart of this, including those victims who will not come forward to seek justice or who feel that the justice system works against them rather than for them. One story that sticks in my mind is of a woman who had been sexually harassed by a sex pest but who told a newspaper that she would not go to court if she knew that her attacker would avoid jail. That is the current reality of our justice system: victims are anxious about going to court and fear that they will not see justice being done.
With violent crime at its highest level since 2013, the number of sexual crimes higher than in any other year on record and the number of domestic abuse incidents at its second worst level ever, it is no wonder that Scotland’s justice system appears to favour the perpetrator over the victim. The Scottish Government must deliver a justice system that takes a multifaceted approach, with victims at its heart. However, this Government has done little to assure me that it can deliver that change.
Broken promises and delays in delivering vital change to the justice system have led to many victims and witnesses being failed by the legal process. There is an endless list of the negative experiences of those who have encountered the Scottish justice system. Many victims have described feeling that they have no voice and being retraumatised or let down by the process. Community Justice Scotland quotes one report as even referring to court as a “theatre of shame” for victims of crime, with some survivors having to relive experiences of abuse and often doing so long after the crime has occurred.