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Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill - Financial Memorandum

Overview

The Bill makes changes to the law to try to improve the experience of victims and witnesses in the justice system. The Bill also makes changes to the criminal justice system to try to improve the fairness, clarity and transparency of the framework within which decisions in criminal cases are made.

At its introduction, the Bill is split into six parts.

Part 1:

• creates the office of Victims and Witnesses Commissioner for Scotland.

Part 2:

• embeds trauma-informed practice in criminal and civil courts.

Part 3:

• increases the availability of special measures for vulnerable witnesses and parties in civil court proceedings.

Part 4

• changes the size of a criminal jury;
• makes rules about majority verdicts and what happens when a juror is dismissed or unable to continue on the jury;
• removes the not proven verdict.

Part 5:

• creates a new sexual offences court and sets out how it will operates within the criminal justice system.

Part 6:

• provides automatic life-long anonymity for victims of sexual offences;
• gives complainers in sexual offence cases an automatic right to independent legal representation when an application is made to introduce evidence about the complainer’s character;
• gives power to the Scottish Ministers to carry out a pilot of rape trials conducted by a single judge

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Financial Memorandum

As with all Bills, the Finance and Public Administration Committee invites written evidence on the estimated financial implications of the Bill as set out in its accompanying Financial Memorandum (FM).

Read the FM for this Bill: Financial Memorandum.

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Your Views

The call for views closed on 8 September 2023.

The Committee received 7 submissions to its call for views. Read the submissions on Citizen Space.

The Committee agreed to forward the submissions received to the Criminal Justice Committee as part of that Committee's consideration of the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill and to write to the Criminal Justice Committee and Scottish Government in relation to some of the key issues highlighted in written evidence. Read the letters here:

Letter from the Convener to the Convener of the Criminal Justice Committee of 2 November 2023

Letter from the Convener to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs of 2 November 2023

The Scottish Government replied to the Committee's letter on 4 December 2023:

Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs to the Convener of 4 December 2023