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Access requests to commence fieldwork for the research were sent to the Lord President and Sheriffs Principal in March 2020. However, due to the rapid escalation of the pandemic and national lockdown, the judiciary collectively asked for the research to be paused. At the same time, the Scottish Government suspended all face-to-face social research to ensure public health measures were observed. For these reasons, the proposed fieldwork was paused. Fieldwork resumed in 2021, with the judiciary and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service participating remotely.

An interim findings report is due to be published on Wednesday 27 July 2022, with follow on fieldwork (including other key stakeholders) commencing in summer 2022.

The Scottish Government publishes monthly and annual information on time held on remand in the Justice Analytical Services Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Report [1] and the annual official Scottish Prison Population Statistics [2]. Official statistics for 2020-21 were published on 23 June 2022, and the June 2022 monthly figures were published on 30 June 2022.

The latest monthly report shows that on the 1st June 2022, 661 (30.4%) of the 2,176 individuals on remand had held a remand status for over 140 days. It must be noted that the remand population includes individuals whose trial has commenced but not concluded, as well as those awaiting commencement of a trial. As a result, the figures referenced above reflect only that an individual has held the same status for an extended period, but do not reflect the relationship between these times on remand and the ongoing court procedure(s) to which they relate.

The annual official statistics are a compilation of data collected over the full financial year from the Scottish Prison Service prisoner records system. To produce the annual statistics, the data needs to be processed into a longitudinal analytical dataset. This process has not yet commenced for 2021-22, so the Scottish Government does not currently hold the data requested.

[1] Justice Analytical Services Safer Communities and Justice Statistics Monthly Report, https://www.gov.scot/collections/crime-and-justice-statistics/ #justiceanalyticalservicessafercommunitiesandjusticestatisticsmonthlyreport

[2] Justice Analytical Services Scottish Prison Population statistics

https://www.gov.scot/collections/scottish-prison-population-statistics/

This information is not held centrally.

The review, Improving the Management of Sexual Offence Cases , led by the Lord Justice Clerk, Lady Dorrian, developed proposals for an improved system to deal with serious sexual offence cases, including recommending consideration of a time-limited pilot of single judge rape trials. We have committed to give careful consideration to all of the Review’s recommendations.

We have established a Governance Group to further explore the recommendations on an individual and collective basis. The Group established a short-life working group to consider the specific issues involved in any potential pilot of single judge rape trials. In addition, we launched a consultation on 12 May to gather wider views on the recommendation and other proposals to improve victims’ experiences of the justice system. Decisions on whether to proceed with legislation to implement a pilot will be informed by the outcomes of the working group and the consultation.

A number of Working Groups have been set up to support and inform the Lady Dorrian Review Governance Group on specific areas or aspects of the recommendations, share accountability and ownership of action, and encourage stakeholders and organisations to work together.

In the context of broader terms of reference to support the Governance Group, the Single Judge Trial Pilot Working Group has been set up specifically to:

• Identify the key areas for development in order to make recommendations to the Governance Group on how to progress the consideration of a pilot. This may include aspects of feasibility and potential challenges (legal and other) of a pilot;
• Identify what other information, research, evidence may be needed to assist the consideration of the issues arising from the recommendation and any pilot;
• Consider how the progress, consideration and evaluation planned in relation to recommendation 5 and ‘steps to enhancing the quality of jury involvement’ might impact on the scope of any planned pilot.
• Identify policy and operational development required to further the consideration of a pilot and key opportunities/challenges to building consensus given the division of the Review Group;
• Consider what might be included within a public consultation document to gather views on the recommendation;
• Look at any other issues relevant to its considerations;
• Consider the implications of progressing of this recommendation in light of the work on the other recommendations within the Report, bearing in mind the independence of certain recommendations identified in the Report.

The Working Group is expected to report its findings to the Lady Dorrian Review Governance Group in Autumn 2022.

In addition to the Scottish Government, the working group includes representation from the following organisations:

• Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service
• Faculty of Advocates
• Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service
• Victims Support Scotland
• Scottish Legal Aid Board
• Rape Crisis Scotland
• Law Society of Scotland

This information is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government holds data on the number of long term empty homes that have been empty for 6 months or more, by local authority from 2005 to 2021. This can be accessed using the following link: Housing statistics: Empty properties and second homes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

This data is sourced from Council Tax information. Caution should be applied when considering this data as improvements have been made to the data collection systems by several local authorities since 2005, with some local authorities reporting zero long-term empty properties up until 2013. In addition, local authorities gained discretionary power to remove the empty properties discount or set a council tax increase of 100% in 2013. The council tax changes have led to the reclassification of a number of properties.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to increase the single person’s council tax discount. We are committed to reforming the Council Tax to make it fairer and is establishing a working group with representation from the Scottish Green Party, and engaging with COSLA, to oversee the development of effective deliberative engagement on sources of local government funding, including Council Tax. This work will culminate in a citizens’ assembly.

The operational recording of information on incidents of domestic and sexual abuse against men is a matter for Police Scotland, and as with any report of criminal behaviour, will be underpinned by the Scottish Crime Recording Standard (SCRS). The Standard sets out to ensure a more victim-oriented approach is taken to recording crime, and ultimate responsibility for compliance lies with the Chief Constable.

The Official Statistics on both recorded domestic abuse and sexual crime in Scotland are based upon data returns made by Police Scotland to the Scottish Government (and are a by-product of their administrative processes). Further quality assurance work is then undertaken between Scottish Government and Police Scotland statisticians prior to their publication. Many of the categories used to record crimes that may be typically associated with domestic or sexual abuse, such as those under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 or Rape / Sexual assault, also identify whether the victim is male or female.