Law Society welcomes scrapping of juryless trials proposal

The Law Society of Scotland says the Scottish Government has made the correct decision in scrapping its plans for juryless trials for sexual offences.

Justice Secretary Angela Constance has confirmed the proposed pilot scheme for single-judge trials will be removed from the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill before it progresses further through the Scottish Parliament.

Another provision the Law Society had criticised to reduce the size of juries for criminal trials from 15 to 12 has also been dropped, but the Government is pushing on with its intention to scrap the not proven verdict.

John Mulholland, the Convener of the Law Society’s Public Policy Committee, said: “We’ve been calling for these parts of the bill to be scrapped for many months, and are pleased to see the Scottish Government acting on the widespread concerns that have been raised.

“Juries for serious crimes are a cornerstone of our criminal justice system. Solicitors working in criminal law have been deeply concerned about this proposal that lacks detail and supporting evidence being imposed on cases involving real people.

“Our criminal justice system is finely balanced and even small changes can have unintended negative consequences. Retaining the size of juries is also a positive step supporting the integrity of our system, though we remain concerned at the likely scrapping of the third verdict.

“It’s unfortunate that we’ve had to wait so long for this decision to be reached, as so much time has been spent on this plan at the expense of other complex parts of the bill. We will now be turning our full attention to the remaining concerning provisions.

“There remain a number of positive elements of this legislation which we support, including around the anonymity of complainers in sexual offence cases, and an increased focus on the value of trauma informed practice.”