SCTS begins quarterly criminal cases statistics series
A new quarterly bulletin has been launched by Scottish Courts & Tribunals Service to provide official statistics on criminal case activity in Scotland’s courts.
The new series will cover 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 business.
Information on summary and solemn business will be available for each court individually, with access to graphs and tables in addition to the figures themselves.
Among the figures disclosed by the first edition are:
- a 25% decline in first instance criminal cases registered in 2017-18 as compared with 2014-15 (and a 7% decline on the 2016-17);
- an upward trend in registered indictments in both High Court and sheriff court solemn procedure, and a 13% increase in petitions between Q4 2017-18 and Q1 2018-19;
- across all courts, the percentage of trials adjourned due to lack of court time fell from 5.6% in 2014-15 to 4.1% in 2017-18; for sheriff court solemn business it was down from 7.1% to 3.8% and in the High Court it was down from 2.2% to zero;
- the JP court saw a 42% drop in cases registered between 2014-15 and 2017-18, and a 36% fall in evidence led trials, though the figure now appears to be stabilising.
SCTS hopes its initiative will be of use to anyone with an interest in the flow of activity through Scotland’s courts, in particular legal practitioners and researchers. It marks a further move in promoting availability of court statistics, following the introduction of the Quarterly Fines Report.
David Fraser, SCTS chief operations officer, commented: “I am delighted that we can now provide this information, which shows the trends in criminal cases over the last four years.
“The number of indictments registered in the High Court increased over the past year with the number of cases proceeding to trial remaining high, and it is expected that this trend will continue with further rises in the number of High Court trials. The complexity and length of trials being heard has also been increasing in recent years, with a greater proportion of cases relating to sexual offending and domestic abuse proceeding to trial.
“Reforms introduced to sheriff court solemn business by the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 have improved the efficiency of case management at the sheriff and jury level, and further reforms are being considered at summary level. Summary business levels in both the sheriff and justice of the peace courts have shown a decline from the unprecedented high volume of business experienced in 2014-15.”
Andrew Alexander, head of policy at the Law Society of Scotland, said: “I think it’s a very helpful publication and a commendable commitment to open data. With the number of criminal cases changing locally and nationally, I think that this will be a very helpful resource to practitioners, allowing for better prediction and planning.”