Victim Notification Scheme (VNS): independent review

Section 9: Standards and reporting

The Victims and Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2014 sought to improve the support available to victims and witnesses in the criminal justice system. One of the duties the Act imposed on organisations within the criminal justice system was to set clear standards of service for victims and witnesses.

The standards of service are based on the main principles of the Victims and Witnesses (Scotland) Act 2014 and are set out in Section 1. These are:

• That a victim or witness should be able to obtain information about what is happening in the investigation or proceedings;
• That the safety of a victim or witness should be ensured during and after the investigation and proceedings;
• That a victim or witness should have access to appropriate support during and after the investigation and proceedings; and
• That, in so far as it would be appropriate to do so, a victim or witness should be able to participate effectively in the investigation and proceedings.

Each of the agencies, Police Scotland, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service, Scottish Prison Service and Parole Board for Scotland, is required to report annually in one combined document "Standards of Service for Victims and Witnesses, Annual Report."

There are no joint targets, which would be a simple lever to drive joined-up working for the benefit of the victim, for example, making the COPFS and any contact unit jointly responsible for achieving deadlines for transferring information. Reporting against these targets should be integral to the performance report.

We have commented in the next section that the performance report is largely narrative in nature with too little data to allow trends to be tracked.

Recommendation 1. Objectives and targets. Section 9

Considerable attention should be given to devising meaningful objectives and targets across the delivery of the VNS, which clearly relate to its purpose. There should be a common currency for targets, to include a focus on improvement, user satisfaction and well-being.

Recommendation 2. Objectives and targets. Section 9

We recommend that, whilst volumes are small, mental health cases are part of the landscape and should come within the ambit of performance reporting in order to provide a full picture. We recommend the inclusion of reporting data on the handling of mental health cases in the Performance Report.