COVID Criminal Endurance Recovery Group

In light of the continuing and challenging criminal justice situation and in light of the prioritisation of court business announced by the Lord President in early January 2021, the COVID Criminal Endurance Recovery Group has been set up.

The group meets weekly on a Thursday afternoon. It's an opportunity for practitioners to talk to the Law Society about what is happening on the ground in criminal practice, and also allow the Law Society office bearers and Chief Executive to share the information they are hearing from criminal justice partners while this situation continues.

The group has been set up under the auspices of the Criminal Law Committee.

Feedback from each week's meeting is used to inform a weekly Monday meeting of SCTS and other criminal justice partners at which the Law Society is represented by the President and Chief Executive. Outcomes from that meeting are then fed back to the COVID Criminal Endurance Recovery Group, along with an update on other activities from the week ahead of the next group meeting.

4 February 2021

• Update provided ahead of Thursday morning. Includes feedback from the Monday morning meeting with SCTS, COPFS, Law Society and Faculty of Advocates, including discussions on undertakings, the virtual custody pilot in Falkirk and the virtual summary cases approach in Aberdeen.
• The note of the 4 February meeting will be added once confirmed at the next group meeting on 11 February.

28 January 2021

• Update provided ahead of Thursday meeting. Includes feedback from local faculties during the week on virtual custodies, updates from the Monday morning meeting with SCTS, COPFS, Law Society and Faculty of Advocates, activity to request more information on court safety and the current status of risk assessments and a list of key criminal justice meetings.
• Notes from meeting on 28 January.

21 January 2021

• Update provided ahead of Thursday meeting. Including relevant news stories/publications, feedback from the Monday morning meeting with SCTS, COPFS, Law Society and Faculty of Advocates and list of key criminal justice meetings.
• Notes from meeting on 21 January.

14 January 2021

• Notes from meeting on 14 January.

Contributing information to the group

The COVID Criminal Endurance Recovery Group includes practitioners from across Scotland. Information is gathered by representatives locally and fed back in to the group each Thursday.

If you wish to make the group aware of a particular issue in your area, and are not in contact with the representative from your local area, you can also submit information directly by emailing gillianmawdsley@lawscot.org.uk All information received before 1pm on the Thursday the group meets, will be included in the meeting updates and feedback/future actions will appear in the meeting notes published on this page.