More trials but fewer adjournments reported in latest court figures

Fewer adjournments for lack of court time, despite some growth in the number of scheduled trials, are among the features of Scottish criminal court business for the third quarter of 2018-19 reported in the third Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service quarterly statistical bulletin, published today.

The bulletin provides quarterly figures on activity in all High, sheriff and justice of the peace courts, giving national trends as well as detailed figures for local courts in solemn and summary criminal business.

In the High Court, the volume of indictments registered continued to be above 200 per quarter, while evidence led trials remained high, with 236 trials scheduled at the end of Q3 compared with 192 at the end of Q1. This trend is anticipated to continue due to increased reporting of sexual offending cases. However the percentage of High Court trials adjourned due to lack of court time has fallen, from 2.2% in 2014-15 to 0.9% for the first three quarters of 2018-19.

Sheriff court solemn business saw an increase of 8% in the volume of petitions registered in Q3 of 2018-19 compared with Q2, but only a slight increase in rgistered indictments. The volume of evidence led trials was fairly steady, but the number of trials scheduled at the end of the quarter again shows an upward trend. Adjournments due to lack of court time have fallen from 7.1% to 2.3% since 2014-15.

Sheriff court summary complaints tend to fluctuate, with Q3 of 2018-19 being 6% higher than Q1 despite a decrease since 2014-15. Evidence led trials were up 3% on Q2, and the number of trials scheduled has risen by 2% over the last two quarters. Adjournments for lack of court time have fallen from 6.1% to 4.0% since 2014-15.

The JP court saw 6% fewer cases registered between Q2 and Q3 of 2018-19, but a stable number of evidence led trials and a 15% growth in scheduled trials compared with Q1. Adjournments for lack of court time are down from 4.0% to 2.0% since 2014-15.

David Fraser, chief operations officer at SCTS, commented: “Overall the data in this report show the system is performing well. The number of adjournments for lack of court time is down across all sectors, which is a good indicator of overall performance.”

Click here to access the bulletin, under "Statistics".