Seòmar agus comataidhean

Violence Against Women and Girls

Letter from Keith Brown MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans to the Convener, Criminal Justice Committee, 14 January 2022

Dear Convener

Thank you for your letter dated 21 December 2021. I welcomed the opportunity to speak to the Committee and the Committee’s continued interest in the criminal justice system’s role in ensuring the effective prosecution of cases involving violence against women and girls.

I have also received the report, ‘Judged on Progress: The need for urgent delivery on Scottish Justice Sector Reforms’, published on 10 January 2022, to which the Scottish Government will issue a formal response in due course.

You have asked for further information on three topics which I am happy to provide.

Scottish Government led Governance Group

You have indicated that you will be writing separately to Mr Cowan to seek an update following the first meeting of the Scottish Government led Governance Group, established to progress and consider further recommendations within the Lord Justice Clerk’s Review Group report on improving the management of sexual offence cases. I can confirm that the Governance Group met before the festive break, and plans to meet again next month (February). As the Chair of the Governance Group, Mr Cowan will be happy to provide more detail in response to any further correspondence from the Committee.

Visual Recording Interview Pilot

You have requested further detail about the Visual Recording Interview Pilot (VRI Pilot) and the action to progress this with an indicative timetable. You will be aware that the Scottish Government has worked closely on the pilot with partners: Police Scotland, COPFS and Rape Crisis Scotland. As stated in my evidence, as of the 13th December 2021, 266 VRIs have been carried out with a total of 247 complainers, however no cases have yet proceeded to trial so we don’t have the data throughput for evaluation purposes.

As part of our discussions with Justice Partners under the Victims Taskforce and the Justice COVID-19 Recover, Renew and Transform programme, the VRI Pilot Advisory Group were asked to consider options to accelerate improvements to videoing police statements and remote evidence given by vulnerable witnesses. I understand that the collective agreement which was reached was that it was too soon to conduct a rapid assessment and any immediate roll out on the basis that no VRIs had progressed through courts. Partners felt strongly that we should capture the understanding of the results of using VRIs in the end to end court process prior to any wide scale roll out. Agreement has been reached to continue the pilot in the existing areas in its current form and an implementation plan is being worked on by the VRI Pilot Advisory Group to inform future scaling up of the initiative.

Clearly the roll out of the VRI Pilot will require to take into consideration pre-recording of evidence at trial to enable a holistic process for the complainer. We are therefore mindful that any changes to the Vulnerable Witnesses (Criminal Evidence) (Scotland) Act 2019 to extend the categories of victims allowed to have their evidence pre-recorded in advance of the trial, should have equal read across to the VRI pilot. All of this work is of significance to the consideration of Lady Dorian’s recommendations. We fully expect that there is a role for the VRI Pilot Advisory Group to function as an Implementation Group for delivering the recommendation on VRI and that this will feed into the work of the Scottish Government led Governance Group. Where further information becomes available about indicative timescales I would be happy to provide this.

Currently the VRI pilot’s Project Guidance Documentation and Memorandum of Understanding between the Police Service of Scotland (PSOS), The Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS) and
the Scottish Government extends to adult complainers in cases involving allegations of rape and attempted rape. A SOLO (Sexual Offence Liaison Officer) VRI officer is deployed to the victim and is lead interviewer. Officers of PSOS who conduct the VRIs receive appropriate additional training for this purpose. Therefore the scope of the VRI Pilot is confined to these particular cases and not further at present. Any decisions about extending categories of cases which could qualify for a VRI would need to be considered carefully by the VRI Oversight Group particularly in relation to the training required, as well as the estate and facilities available to process the numbers of VRIs coming through. I would, however, echo the sentiments made by Police Scotland in their own evidence to the Committee on 15 December, that it would be the preference that a VRI was available to every witness who wanted it. We remain united in our ambition to see this goal realised, but the necessary steps must be taken to ensure that we can deliver on this without compromising the integrity of the initiative.

Specialist Domestic Abuse Courts

You have asked whether we can provide details of the work that the Scottish Government has done to evaluate the outcomes of existing specialist domestic abuse courts in Glasgow and Edinburgh, whether there is an intention to establish domestic abuse courts in other parts of Scotland and, if so, provide a timescale for doing so.

Firstly, it may be helpful to confirm that the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008, provides that it is the responsibility of the Lord President as Head of the independent Judiciary and of Sheriffs Principal, to ensure the efficient disposal of business through Scotland’s courts, including sheriff courts. The 2008 Act operates in this way because the independent judiciary know how best cases can and should be managed through the courts. Where the Lord President, in consultation with the relevant Sheriff Principal, considers that it is appropriate to establish a specialism in domestic abuse cases in a particular Sheriffdom, they are able to do so. The Lord President does so without the requirement for the involvement or approval of the Scottish Ministers or the Scottish Parliament.

Within this constitutional context, the most recent publication by the Scottish Government was in 2019 when we published literature relating to the operation of specialist domestic abuse courts in other jurisdictions. In September 2019 a report was published examining the effectiveness of Integrated Domestic Abuse Courts (IDACs) that use a ‘One Family, One Judge’ model. This paper examined different models of courts used internationally and can be found here.

A less recent evaluation specific to domestic abuse courts in Scotland was commissioned by the then Scottish Executive and took place from October 2004-October 2006. The Evaluation found that these courts were effective, and had many benefits compared to traditional courts, including improved outcomes such as: a higher proportion of cases in which there was a guilty plea at some stage (81% compared to 73%); a higher proportion of guilty pleas at the first appearance (21% compared to 18%), a higher proportion of pleas changed to guilty at or before the intermediate diet (54% compared to 45%), a higher conviction rate (86% compared to 77%). The speed of processing cases was much faster in the domestic abuse court than the comparison courts. There was overwhelming support for a specialist court approach to domestic abuse amongst participants of all types and this evidence supported a decision by the judiciary to establish permanently the Glasgow DA court and others that followed.

During the scrutiny of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 by Parliament, there was a wish to understand better how domestic abuse was dealt with by the criminal courts including in respect of the operation of the new domestic abuse offence. As such, Parliament agreed for a reporting requirement that requires Scottish Ministers to report to Parliament on the domestic abuse cases tried in Scottish courts during the first three years in which the Act has been in operation (from April 2019 to March 2022).

The provision requires the report to include separate court statistics to be produced for different court areas and court types. This may assist in assessing the impact of specialist domestic abuse courts in those areas where they are operating on the outcome of domestic abuse cases in recent times (e.g. in terms of time taken for cases to be resolved, and the conviction rate). The provision also requires Scottish Ministers to seek views from the Lord President as to how court business is arranged for domestic abuse offences, including in different areas and different levels of court. This provision reflects the constitutional arrangements for the Lord President in respect of organisation of the operation of the criminal courts. It is considered the information to be contained in the report will be helpful to understand the experiences of those involved in cases of domestic abuse since the new offence was introduced.

I hope that this is helpful to you.

Keith Brown