Victim Notification Scheme (VNS): independent review

Section 16: The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service

COPFS is involved with the VNS in three respects, Parts 1 and 2 and CORO, (a mental health Compulsion Order and Restriction Order). Following the sentencing of an offender, COPFS identify eligible victims and arranges for them to be sent a leaflet and a number of forms.

Communication is computer-generated at the time of file updating following sentencing. If a sentence is under 18 months, VIA may telephone a victim. There is not a VIA officer assigned to every case, for example in some summary cases. When the pack is sent out to the victim, the process requires registration forms to be sent elsewhere, to the Scottish Prison Service, not back to the sender. This in itself can lead to confusion and forms being returned to the wrong place. Additionally, COPFS does not monitor who signs up in relation to forms sent out, so it is difficult to measure take-up rates, as SPS only deal with applications received. Under this system, there is no opportunity for a follow up invitation to register.

The COPFS representatives we spoke to suggested an 'opt out' system rather than the present 'opt in' might improve take-up and be more effective overall. We did not identify evidence that this stage of the process was actively trauma-informed. That COPFS were not able on interview to tell us how many information packs were sent, but that this information was disclosed in two Parliamentary Questions gave us an indication that these data are not at the forefront of managing the process. The answers to these two questions jointly explained that the numbers of registration packs sent out were:

2018-19 1880
2019-20 1788
2020-21 1158
2021-22 1674
2022 to 16 January 2023 1788

The scheme has a set-out table of eligibility, which is strictly applied, but stakeholders generally commented that this can prove inflexible. It is also possible that one incident may involve several victims and one offender, but different sentences for individual offences may mean some victims are eligible for the VNS and others are excluded. Administrators of the scheme felt there should be some room for discretion in determining scheme eligibility.

We consider that there may be a case for third party individuals to be able to register, where a legitimate interest can be established. This would only apply where an offender receives a custodial sentence. We have received feedback in relation to this issue and there is a model in Switzerland where this pertains. We suggest that consideration is given to the legal basis on which this might be done in Scotland.

It was suggested that discretion could be exercised to extend beyond the limit of the number of relatives eligible (normally 4), that the statutory table did not reflect modern family relationships and where there are multiple victims of one offender, and some charges did not result in custody, this could result in unequal outcomes for the victims. It was also suggested an improvement could be made in relation to inclusion for a sentence under 18 months. Administrators told us they would particularly like to see some discretion over the 4 relative limit in homicide cases.

We refer to this in Recommendation 12 in Section 24.