6.    Accused that proceed to court

This section presents journey times for accused who are proceeded against in court by: court type, warrant status, crime group and crime type.

6.1. Percentage of accused with verdicts within 1 year, from 1 to 2 years or over 2 years since offence date.

[Supplementary Table 3]

When the procurator fiscal decides to raise court proceedings against the accused then the accused will be registered in court. This may result in a summary prosecution (in Sheriff or Justice of the Peace (JP) court) or a solemn proceeding (in either Sheriff court or High court).

When an accused is registered in court, several outcomes can occur:

• the accused is convicted, either after pleading guilty or being found guilty after evidence has been heard in Court,
• an acceptable plea short of plea of guilty as libelled is accepted (partial plea),
• the accused is acquitted following a not guilty or a not proven verdict,
• the accused has their plea of not guilty accepted by the prosecutor, or
• the case against an accused is deserted i.e. the Crown decides to not proceed with a prosecution at that time (though they may in some cases decide to prosecute at a future date).

Those convicted of a crime or offence in court can be admonished, given an ‘other’ disposal, a fine, a community disposal, or a custodial sentence. More information on these outcomes of criminal proceedings can be found here:

Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Up to and including 2019-20, 83-84% of accused proceeded against in criminal courts had a disposal issued within one year of the offence being committed (Figure 3). This fell to 57% in financial year 2022-23 but increased to 61% in 2023-24.

Figure 3: Percentages of accused that proceed to court with verdicts within 1 year, between 1 and 2 years and over 2 years since offence date by financial year.

6.2. Time from offence to verdict by type of court.

[Supplementary Table 4]

As noted above, type of court refers to the final destination court of a case, cases can move between court types over their journey time.

Figure 4 shows the median journey time by court type for each financial year. Median journey times decreased in all court types in 2023-24 when compared to 2022-23 with the exception of Sheriff solemn: -4% for High Court (from 1,076 to 1,032 days), -18% for Sheriff summary (from 306 to 252 days) and -6% for Justice of the Peace (from 303 to 286 days). Sheriff solemn journey times increased by 7% (from 529 to 564 days).

Figure 4: Median time from offence to verdict by type of court.

6.3. Time from offence to verdict by warrant status.

[Supplementary Table 5]

The median court journey times described above include all accused that have been prosecuted in criminal courts. However, if the accused fails to appear, the court may issue an arrest warrant, which can lead to an increase in the time taken to issue a verdict. Figure 5 shows median journey times broken down by type of court and warrant status, that is if the accused had ever had a non-appearance warrant on the case. In general, journey times are lower if there is no non-appearance warrant connected with the case.

In 2023-24, compared to previous financial year, median journey times for both groups of accused have decreased: from 519 to 504 days (-3%) for accused with non-appearance warrant and from 295 to 258 days (-13%) for accused without non-appearance warrants.

Figure 5: Median time from offence to verdict by warrant status.

6.4. Journey times for different stages of the justice process.

[Supplementary Table 6]

The data available allow for overall journey times to be split into: date of offence to the date an offence is first known to police (offence to police known), date an offence is first known to police to the date an offence is recorded at COPFS (police known to COPFS record), the date an offence is recorded at COPFS to the date a case is registered in court (COPFS report to court registration) and the date a case is registered in court to the date a verdict is reached (court registration to verdict). The first 3 of these times can be considered pre-court times and the final time is an in-court time. These are shown in figures 6a, 6b, 6c and 6d for each court type. Although the pre-court times are not directly linked to the type of court, we are showing them by court destination as they contribute to the overall length of time a case takes to reach a verdict in a particular court type.

For all the accused with verdicts issued in High Court, Sheriff solemn, Sheriff summary and JP court the median times from offence to police known and police known to COPFS record are in general very low. The median offence to police known for accused with verdicts issued in High Court was 3 days in 2023-24. For accused with verdicts issued in other courts this median time is 0 days indicating that this happens on average on the same day.

The median police known to COPFS report time for accused with verdicts issued in High court was on average 5 days until 2021-22 but increased to 10 days in 2022-23 and increased further to 12 days in 2023-24. For accused with verdicts issued in Sheriff solemn court the median police known to COPFS report time has remained around 3 days. For accused with verdicts issued in Sheriff summary this time has almost doubled since pre-pandemic, increasing from around 6 days in 2019-20 to 11 days in 2023-24. The median police known to COPFS record time is now higher for accused with verdicts issued in JP court, increasing from 55 days in 2022-23 to 60 days in 2023-24.

The median time from COPFS report to court registration is, in general higher, for accused with verdicts issued in solemn courts than for the accused disposed in summary courts. For accused disposed in solemn courts these times have further increased in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23: for accused with a verdict in High Court there was a 62 day (14%) increase to 491 days, for accused in Sheriff solemn court there was a 29 day (11%) increase to 294 days. COPFS report to court registration times for accused disposed in Sheriff summary court remained stable (median time 24 days) in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23. And for accused with verdicts in JP courts median times decreased by 24 days (-23%) from 104 days to 80 days.

In-court times (court registration to verdict) saw a decrease in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23 in all court types except the High Court where times remained stable: High Court remained at 323 days, Sheriff solemn court decreased by 11 days (-9%) to 117 days Sheriff summary court decreased by 42 days (-25%) to 124 days and JP court decreased by 5 days (-7%) to 65 days.

Figure 6: Median time for stages of the justice process by destination court: High court (a), Sheriff solemn (b), Sheriff Summary (c) and JP court.

6.5. Journey times by crime group.

The types of crime committed by the accused affect the journey time. Analysis by crime group follows the methodology outlined in the methods section above.  

6.5.1 Sexual crimes (Group 2).

[Supplementary Table 7]

Figure 7 shows the median offence to verdict time by court type for accused included in the sexual crimes group. This graph shows median journey times increased in solemn courts in 2023-24 when compared to 2022-23.

Figure 7: Median offence to verdict times for accused with sexual crimes by court type.

However, new information included in this bulletin, allows us to provide some insights on the effect of historic cases on the journey times for accused charged with sexual crimes.  For the purposes of this bulletin we are considering a historic offence to be one in which the time between the date of the offence and the date the offence is first reported to the police is more than one year.

Historic cases, by definition, take longer to work their way through the justice system than non-historic cases. Therefore median offence to verdict times for all sexual crime cases are influenced by the proportion of historic cases reaching a verdict and the time in which those cases reach a verdict. For example, in HC in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23, there were the same proportion of historic cases concluded but, on average, they were concluded more quickly. The effect of this, when all cases are considered together, is to increase the overall median time. It is therefore essential that we consider times for historic sexual crimes separately from those for non-historic crimes.

In 2023-24 there were 1,308 (3%) historic offences in crime groups 1-5 (see Annex B for details). In the sexual crime group (Group 2), 19% of all offences were historic. In the other crime groups this was significantly lower, ranging from 0-3%.  On that basis, accused charged with sexual crimes are considered in two groups: those that were classed as historic cases and those classed as non-historic (offence to police known < 1 year).

Table 1 shows the proportion of solemn court sexual crime cases that are classed as historic in each of the last two years. Note that a small number of cases are excluded from this table as the date the offence was made known to the police is not available.

Table 1:  proportion of solemn court sexual crime accused with offences classed as historic in each of the last two years

 

		Historic		Non-historic		Total
		N	%	N	%	N
High Court	2022-23	200	44%	251	56%	451
	2023-24	183	43%	246	57%	429
Sheriff Solemn	2022-23	159	27%	424	73%	583
	2023-24	128	26%	363	74%	491

The median offence to verdict time for these groups is shown in figure 8.

The median offence to verdict time for accused in the historic sexual crimes group in High Court in 2023-24 was 4,027 days (around 11 years), this has reduced from 4,892 days (around 13 years and 4 months) in 2022-23 (-18%). In Sheriff solemn court, the median journey times for this group were around half this value, increasing from 2,727 days (around 7 years and 5 months) in 2022-23 to 2,998 days (around 8 years and 2 months) in 2023-24 (10%).

 The median offence to verdict times for accused in the non-historic sexual crimes group remained largely stable in High Court, 1,125 days (just over 3 years) in 2023-24. And have increased by 9% in Sheriff solemn court from 592 days (around 1 year 7 months) in 2022-23 to 646 days (around 1 year 9 months) in 2023-24.

Figure 8: Effect of historic offences in the journey times of accused in sexual crimes group with verdicts in solemn courts.

The median times from offence to police known, police known to COPFS report, COPFS report to court registration and court registration to verdict for accused classified in the sexual crimes group are shown in figure 9 split by historic and non-historic cases.

For non-historic cases (figure 9a) the median time from offence to police known in 2023-24   was 0 days in Sheriff solemn and Sheriff summary and 1 day in High Court. Police known to COPFS report times for accused with verdicts issued in Sheriff solemn and Sheriff summary court remained fairly stable in 2023-24 at 7 and 13 days, respectively. For accused with verdicts issued in High Court these times are higher and increased from 61 days (38%) in 2022-23 to 84 days in 2023-24. Median COPFS report to court registration times are in general higher for accused with verdicts issued in solemn courts than for those given a verdict in Sheriff summary court. For accused disposed in solemn courts these times have increased in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23: by 9 days (2%) to 502 days in High Court and by 31 days (9%) to 377 days in Sheriff solemn court. Median COPFS report to court registration times for accused disposed in Sheriff summary court increased by 2 days (8%) to 28 days in 2023-24. In 2023-24, median court registration to verdict time decreased by 5% to 340 days in High court, increased by 34% to 117 days in Sheriff solemn court and decreased by 8% to 205 days in Sheriff summary court.

For historic cases (figure 9b) median times for offence to police known were around 2,000 days (5 years 6 months) for accused with verdicts issued in solemn courts and 1,000 days (2 years 9 months) for accused with verdicts in summary courts. In 2023-24 median offence to police known times decreased by 680 days (-23%) to 2,252 days (6 years 2 months) in High Court, increased by 224 days (11%) to 2,200 days (6 years) in Sheriff solemn court and by 157 days (20%) to 941 days (2 years 7 months) in Sheriff summary court. For historic cases in 2023-24, the time from police known to COPFS report was 16 days for Sheriff solemn court and 28 days for Sheriff summary court. For accused with verdicts in High Court this time was 62 days.  COPFS report to court registration times increased for accused disposed in all court types in 2023-24: by 8 days (2%) to 504 days in High Court, by 34 days (9%) to 396 days in Sheriff solemn court and by 25 days (51%) to 74 days in Sheriff summary court.  In 2023-24, compared to 2022-23, median court registration to verdict time increased by 18 days (5%) to 356 days in High Court, and decreased by 55 days (-25%) to 162 days in Sheriff solemn court and by 65 days (-25%) to 200 days in Sheriff summary court.  In summary, the longest stage of historic case journey times is the time from an offence occurring to its reporting to the police.  

Figure 9: Median times for journey times stages of accused with sexual crimes by court type: a) non historic and b) historic offences.

6.5.2. Non-sexual crimes of violence (group 1).

[Supplementary Table 8]

Figure 10 shows median offence to verdict times by court type for accused included in the non-sexual crimes of violence group. Median journey times increased in solemn court in 2023-24 when compared to 2022-23: from 685 to 698 days (2%) in High Court and from 511 to 561 days (10%) in Sheriff solemn court. Over the same time period, median offence to verdict times decreased for accused with verdicts issued in summary courts: in Sheriff summary from 338 to 285 days (-16%) and in JP court from 546 to 478 days (-12%).

Figure 10:  Median offence to verdict times for accused with non-sexual crimes of violence by court type.

Common Assault is now included in the non-sexual crimes of violence group, having previously been part of the Miscellaneous offences group (see Annex 5: New crime grouping structure and next steps in the production of crime statistics - Recorded Crime in Scotland, 2021-2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) for more detail). The volume of common assault cases is large, and many may be more straightforward and quicker to progress than other non-sexual crimes of violence cases involving for example murder or serious assault. To help overcome the possibility of many accused with common assault charges artificially lowering the median journey times for group 1, the group has been split into two sub-groups: 1 - accused with only common assault charges (and no other group 1 charges) and 2 - accused with at least one non-common assault group 1 charge (accused in this group may also have a common assault charge). Times are presented for both subgroups and shown in figure 11 (and supplementary table 8).

Journey times for accused with only common assault are in general shorter than journey times for other group 1 accused. Journey times for both groups have decreased in the latest financial year, from 333 to 285 days for accused with only common assault offences and from 562 to 557 days for the rest of the accused with group 1 crimes.

Figure 11: Median offence to verdict time by type of court for non-sexual crimes of violence: accused with only common assault and accused with other non-sexual crimes of violence offences.

Median times from offence to police known, police known to COPFS report, COPFS report to court registration and court registration to verdict for accused in the non-sexual crimes of violence group are shown in figure 12.

In all court types, the median time from offence to police known is 0 days. In 2023-24, the median police known to COPFS report was 4 days in High court, 3 days in Sheriff solemn court and 8 days in Sheriff summary court.

For non-sexual crimes of violence the median COPFS report to court registration times are in general lower for accused with verdicts issued in summary courts than for those whose verdicts were issued in solemn courts. For accused disposed in High court, COPFS report to court registration decreased by 2% to 281 days in 2023-24, in Sheriff solemn court times increased by 9% to 275 days and in Sheriff summary court times decreased by 1 day to 19 days in 2023-24.

For the non-sexual crimes of violence group the median court registration to verdict time  decreased in 2023-24 in all type of courts except High Court: median registration to verdict times in High Court increased by 17 days (6%) to 302 days in 2023-24, the median time in Sheriff solemn court decreased by 14 days (-9%) to 140 days and in Sheriff summary court it decreased by 44 days (-22%) to 156 days.

Figure 12: Median times for journey times stages of accused with non-sexual crimes of violence by court type.

6.5.3. Crimes of dishonesty (group 3).

[Supplementary Table 9]

Median offence to verdict times for crimes of dishonesty accused are shown in Figure 13. Median journey times increased by 4% (from 534 to 557 days) in Sheriff solemn court in 2023-24 and decreased by 14% (from 324 to 278 days) for accused with a verdict issued in Sheriff summary courts. The number of accused in High court included in this group were too few to allow for comparison.

Figure 13: Median offence to verdict times for accused with crimes of dishonesty by court type.

For this group offence to police known, police known to COPFS report, COPFS report to court registration and court registration to verdict are shown in figure 14.

For accused with verdicts issued in all the court types, the median time from offence to police known is 0 days. In 2023-24, the median time from police known to COPFS report for accused receiving a verdict in Sheriff solemn court was 13 days and for accused receiving a verdict in Sheriff summary was 44 days.

The median COPFS report to court registration time for crimes of dishonesty accused receiving a verdict in Sheriff solemn court increased by 21 days (8%) to 285 days in 2023-24. The corresponding time in Sheriff summary court increased by 2 days (5%) to 41 days in 2023-24.

For the crimes of dishonesty group, median in-court times (court registration to verdict) decreased in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23 by 4 days (-6%) to 61 days in Sheriff solemn court and by 52 days (-31%) to 116 days in Sheriff summary court.

Figure 14: Median times for journey times stages of accused with crimes of dishonesty by court type.

6.5.4. Damage and reckless behaviour (group 4).

[Supplementary Table 10]

Median journey times for accused included in the damage and reckless behaviour group are shown in figure 15. For this group median journey times decreased in 2023-24 when compared to 2022-23: from 528 to 513 days (-3%) in Sheriff solemn court and from 270 to 206 days (-24%) in Sheriff summary court.

Figure 15: Median offence to verdict times for accused with damage and reckless behaviour crimes by court type.

For accused with verdicts issued in all the court types, the median time from offence to police known is 0 days. In 2023-24, the median police known to COPFS report times for accused receiving verdicts in Sheriff solemn and Sheriff summary courts was 2 and 8 days, respectively.

Median COPFS report to court registration times for the damage and reckless behaviour group increased by 89 days (33%) in 2023-24 to 362 days for those accused receiving verdicts in Sheriff solemn court and decreased by 5 days (-23%) to 17 days for those accused receiving verdicts in Sheriff summary court.

Median court registration to verdict times for accused receiving a verdict in Sheriff solemn court decreased by 57 days (-43%) to 77 days in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23 and by 40 days (-26%) to 112 days for those accused receiving a verdict in Sheriff summary court.

Figure 16: Median times for journey times stages of accused with damage and reckless behaviour crimes by court type.

6.5.5. Crimes against society (group 5).

[Supplementary Table 11]

Figure 17 shows the median journey times for accused in the crimes against society group. Median journey times increased in 2023-24 when compared to 2022-23 in solemn courts: up 3% from 890 days (2 years 5 months) to 917 days (2 years 6 months) in High Court and up 6% from 490 days (1 year 4 months) to 520 days (1 year 5 months) in Sheriff solemn court. The median time in Sheriff summary court decreased 26% from 223 days to 166 days in 2023-24 when compared to 2022-23.

Figure 17: Median offence to verdict times for accused with crimes against society by court type.

For this group, median offence to police known, police known to COPFS report, COPFS report to court registration and court registration to verdict are shown in figure 18.

For the accused with verdicts issued in all court types except High court, the median time from offence to police known is 0 days. For accused whose verdict is issued in the High court, the offence to police known time more than doubled (214%) from 22 days in 2022-23 to 69 days in 2023-24. In 2023-24, median police known to COPFS report times for accused registered in High court, Sheriff solemn, Sheriff summary were 3, 3 and 5 days, respectively.

In 2023-24, median COPFS report to court registration times for the crimes against society group decreased by 17 days (-5%) to 350 days for accused with High Court verdicts, increased by 34 days (12%) to 311 days, for accused with Sheriff solemn verdicts and decreased by 5 days (-45%) to 6 days for accused disposed in Sheriff summary court.

For this group, median court registration to verdict times decreased in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23 in all types of court: High Court decreased by 5 days (-2%) to 298 days, Sheriff solemn decreased by 2 days (-4%) to 55 days and Sheriff summary decreased by 31 days (-27%) to 82 days.

Figure 18: Median times for journey times stages of accused with crimes against society by court type.

6.6. Journey times for specific crimes.

1. 6.6.1 Offence to verdict times by crime types.

[Supplementary Table 12]

To understand better how specific crime types were impacting on the journey times of each crime group, the median offence to verdict times for each of the crime types classified in the main crime groups was calculated. Figures 19 to 23 show these values. Journey times for offences in crime groups 6 to 8 (Antisocial offences, Miscellaneous offences and Road traffic offences), will be included in the supporting interactive dashboard to be released later this year. As described in the methods section, accused have been allocated to a crime type by first prioritising sexual crimes and then following the usual methodology followed by other JAS publications.  For example the domestic abuse group will contain only accused without any sexual crime charges and for whom the highest ranking non-sexual crime charge is domestic abuse. So, the times presented are not for all domestic abuse accused but just for those for whom domestic abuse is the main non- sexual charge.

Sexual crimes (group 2)

The longest median offence to verdict times for crimes classified in group 2 are for rape and attempted rape. The median offence to verdict time for this crime type increased during the last seven years reaching a peak in 2021-22 (1,764 days or 4 years 10 months) before decreasing to 1,498 days (4 years 1 month) in 2022-23 and increasing again by 106 days (7%) in 2023-24 to 1,604 days (4 years 4 months).

For sexual assault, journey times have increased since 2018-19 reaching a peak in 2021-22 (774 days). In 2023-24, sexual assault journey times have decreased by 67 days (-10%) to 580 days compared to 2022-23.

For the rest of the sexual crime types, (except for indecent photos of children and threatening to or disclosing intimate images), median journey times have decreased in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23.

The median journey times for the crime of indecent photos of children increased by 105 days (19%) to 663 days and threatening to or disclosing intimate images increased by 30 (8%) to 384 days.

The number of accused charged with crimes associated with prostitution were too few to allow for comparison.

Figure 19: Median offence to verdict times for crime types included in group 2 (Sexual crimes).

Non-sexual crimes of violence (group 1)

Journey times for crime types included in group 1 are shown in Figure 20.

The longest journey times in group 1 are for accused charged with causing death by driving dangerously. These times have been increasing since 2020-21 but decreased by 58 days (-6%) to 858 days (2 years 4 months) in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23.

The median journey time for murder and culpable homicide has increased since 2020-21 and increased by a further 20% from 650 days in 2022-23 to 779 days (2 years 2 months) in 2023-24.  Median journey time for crimes charged under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 have increased since the act was implemented in 2019-20 increasing by 34 days to 586 days in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23.

The median journey times for other crime types in this group decreased in 2023-24 compared to previous financial year: common assault by 47 days (-14%), to 291 days other non-sexual violence by 50 days (-10%) to 436 days, robbery by 51 days (-11%) to 426 days and serious assault and attempted murder by 1 day to 574 days.

Note that accused classified in the common assault group above may be different from the accused in Figure 11. Accused included above have common assault as a main charge, but they could also have group 1 charges that are lower in the ranking (robbery, domestic abuse or other non-sexual violence).

Figure 20: Median offence to verdict times for crime types included in group 1 (Non-sexual crimes of violence).

Crimes of dishonesty (group 3)

For crime types in group 3 (Crimes of dishonesty) median offence to verdict times are shown in Figure 21. In general for all the crime types included in this group median journey times increased from financial year 2020-21 but decreased in 2023-24 (with the exception of theft from a motor vehicle and shoplifting).

In group 3, the longest median offence to verdict times are for accused charged with fraud. Journey times for fraud decreased by 152 days (-20%) to 618 days in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23. Compared to the previous year, in 2023-24, median journey times for housebreaking decreased by 71 days (-14%) to 437 days, other dishonesty by 61 days (-11%) to 498 days, other theft by 54 days to (-13%) 360 days, shoplifting by 22 days (-9%) to 229 days, theft by opening lockfast places by 7 days (-1%) to 463 days and theft of a motor vehicle by 32 days (-11%) to 266 days.

The median journey time for theft from a motor vehicle increased by 70 days (18%) to 450 days in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23.

Figure 21: Median offence to verdict times for crime types included in group 3 (Crimes of dishonesty).

Damage and reckless behaviour crimes (group 4)

The median offence to verdict journey time for accused with crimes in group 4 (Damage and reckless behaviour) also increased after financial year 2020-21. However in 2023-24, all median journey times decreased compared to 2022-23.

Figure 22: Median offence to verdict times for crime types included in group 4 (Damage and reckless behaviour).

Crimes against society (group 5)  

The median journey time for accused with crime types included in group 5 (Crimes against society) are shown in Figure 23. The longest median offence to verdict times are for accused charged with drugs-supply and the shortest times are for accused charged with crimes against public justice. In 2023-24, all times decreased compared to 2022-23. Journey times for accused whose main crime was crimes against public justice decreased by 25 days (-19%) to 104 days, times for accused charged with drugs – possession decreased by 46 days (-12%) to 334 days, times for drugs – supply decreased by 82 days (-14%) to 492 days, times for other crimes against society decreased by 80 days (-20%) to 314 days and times for weapons possession decreased by 62 days (-17%) to 309 days.

Figure 23: Median offence to verdict times for crime types included in group 5 (Crimes against society).

The following section shows the median times associated with the different stages of the justice journey for a selection of specific crime types: rape & attempted rape, sexual assault, murder and culpable homicide, domestic abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, housebreaking, shoplifting and drugs supply. Information for other crime types, belonging to crime groups 1 to 5, is included in the accompanying supplementary tables.

6.6.2 Rape & attempted rape.

[Supplementary Table 13]

As mentioned earlier, the median offence to verdict time for all sexual crimes cases is influenced by the proportion of historic cases reaching a verdict and the time in which those cases reach a verdict.

Crimes of rape & attempted rape has the highest proportion of historic offences (40% of all rape and attempted rape accused). Therefore to understand the effect of historic cases on the journey times for rape & attempted rape accused we considered two groups: those that were classed as historic cases and those classed as non-historic (offence to police known < 1 year). The results are shown in figure 24.

The median offence to verdict times for accused with historic rape and attempted rape offences are much higher than the times for non-historic offences. In 2023-24, for non-historic offences the median offence to verdict time remained stable at 1,120 days (around 3 years). For accused with historic offences median journey time decreased by 395 days (-9%) in 2023-24 to 3,888 days (10 years 8 months).

Figure 24: Median offence to verdict times for accused charged with rape or attempted rape split by historic and non-historic offences.

The journey times for different stages of the justice process for accused with rape and attempted rape charges are shown in figure 25a and 25b (split by non-historic and historic cases). For accused with non-historic rape offences (figure 25a) the median time from offence to police known fluctuates between 0 and 1 days. The median police known to COPFS report time increased from 70 days (11%) in 2022-23 to 78 days in 2023-24. Up to 2021-22, median COPFS report to court registration times were around 300 days before increasing by around two-thirds in 2022-23 and by a further 12 days (2%) to 504 days in 2023-24. Median court registration to verdict times have been decreasing since 2021-22 and in 2023-24 decreased further by 22 days (-6%) to 336 days.

For accused with historic rape offences (figure 25b) the median time from offence to police known has been over 2,000 days (5 years 5 months) over all the years presented, reaching a maximum value of 3,220 days (over 8 years) in 2021-22 and decreasing since that time. In 2023-24 the median offence to police known time for historic cases decreased by 439 days (-17%) to 2,138 days (5 years 10 months). Median police known to COPFS report time remains stable and was 60 days in 2023-24. Up to 2020-21, the median COPFS report to court registration time was around 300 days. This increased by around two thirds in 2022-23 to 494 days (a year and 4 months) and increased further by 7 days (1%) in 2023-24. Median court registration to verdict times in 2023-24 increased by 13 days (4%) to 352 days compared to 2022-23.

Figure 25: Median times for different justice stages for accused charged with rape or attempted rape split by non-historic (a) and historic (b) offences.

6.6.3. Sexual assault.

[Supplementary Table 13]

Twenty per cent of all sexual assault accused were charged with historic offences, therefore the times for sexual assault accused are split into historic and non-historic groups (figure 26).

Median offence to verdict times for accused with non-historic sexual assault offences are, in general, ten times lower than the times for accused with historic sexual assault offences. In 2023-24, compared to 2022-23, the median offence to verdict time for non-historic offences increased by 17 days (4%) to 476 days. For historic offences this time decreased by 775 days (-17%) to 3,889 days (10 years 8 months) over the same time period.

Figure 26: Median offence to verdict times for accused charged with sexual assault split by historic and non- historic offences.

The median times for different stages of the justice journey for accused with sexual assault charges are shown in figure 27a and 27b split by historic and non-historic offences.

For accused with non-historic sexual assault offences (figure 27a) the median time from offence to police known was 0 days. Police known to COPFS report times increased by 14% from 14 days in 2022-23 to 16 days in in 2023-24. Median COPFS report to court registration times increased by 58% from 50 days in 2022-23 to 79 days in 2023-24. Median court registration to verdict times decreased by 7% from 255 days in 2022-23 to 238 days in 2023-24.

For accused with historic sexual assault offences (figure 27b) the median time from offence to police known has been around 3,000 days (over 8 years) throughout the time presented, reaching a maximum value of 3,743 days (10 years 3 months) in 2021-22 and decreasing since then. In 2023-24, this time decreased further by 263 days (-9%) to 2,562 days (7 years 1 month). The median police known to COPFS report time has remained more or less stable over time decreasing by 4 days (-9%) to 40 days in 2023-24. Median COPFS report to court registration times were around 300 days, they have increased during the last two years to 362 days in 2022-23 and by a further 62 days (17%) to 424 days in 2023-24. Median court registration to verdict times have been decreasing since 2021-22 and decreased by 34 days (-12%) in 2023-24 to 252 days.

Figure 27: Median times for different justice stages for accused charged with sexual assault split by non-historic (a) and historic (b) offences.

6.6.4. Murder and culpable homicide.

[Supplementary Table 12]

For accused charged with murder and culpable homicide, median offence to police known, and police known to COPFS report times are low (around 1 day and 6 days in 2023-24). In 2023-24, the median police known to COPFS report times increased by 2 days to 6 days.

Median COPFS report to court registration time increased in 2021-22 and further increased in 2022-23. In 2023-24, the median time increased by 1 day to 278 days.

Median court registration to verdict times for accused charged with murder and culpable homicide almost doubled in 2020-21 to around 340 days and have fluctuated around that level since that time.  In 2023-24 the median time increased by 24 days (7%) to 347 days.

Figure 28: Median times for different justice process stages for accused charged with murder and culpable homicide.

6.6.5. Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018.

[Supplementary Table 13 and Table 14]

The offence of Domestic Abuse relates to a course of conduct. The legislation covers behaviour that took place on or after the date of implementation of the legislation on 1 April 2019. Therefore no offence under this legislation can have an offence date earlier than 1 April 2019 and it is therefore to be expected that the median time for offence to police known will increase over the first few years after implementation.

Twenty per cent of all domestic abuse accused were charged with historic offences, therefore times for domestic abuse accused are split into historic and non-historic groups (figure 29).

Median offence to verdict times for accused with historic domestic abuse offences are higher than the times for accused with non-historic domestic abuse offences. In 2023-24,, the median offence to verdict time for non-historic offences decreased by 20 days (-5%) to 390 days, when compared to 2022-23. For historic offences this time increased by 196 days (17%) to 1,344 days (3 years 8 months).

Figure 29: Median offence to verdict times for accused charged with domestic abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 offences split by historic and non-historic offences.

Median times for different stages of the justice journey for accused with domestic abuse charges are shown in figure 30a and 30b split by historic and non-historic offences.

For accused with non-historic domestic abuse offences (figure 30a) the median time from offence to police known decreased from 29 days in 2022-23 to 24 days in 2023-24. Police known to COPFS report times have been increasing slightly going from 3 days in 2019-20 to 8 days in 2023-24. Median COPFS report to court registration times increased by 3 days (33%) to 12 days in 2023-24, compared to 2022-23. Median court registration to verdict times decreased by 30 days (-16%) to 158 days in 2023-24, compared to 2022-23.

For accused with historic domestic abuse offences (figure 30b) the median time from offence to police known increased by 22% from 716 days (just under 2 years) in 2022-23 to 872 days (2 years 5 months) in 2023-24. The median police known to COPFS report time has remained more or less stable over time increasing by 2 days (29%) to 9 days in 2023-24. Median COPFS report to court registration times were 0 days during 2019-2020 and 2020-21 and they have increased in the last three reporting years to 28 days in 2023-24. Median court registration to verdict times for accused with historic domestic abuse decreased by 20 days (-11%) in 2023-24 to 168 days.

The times presented above are for accused with a domestic abuse crime as their main crime following the methodology described in methods section above (Methods). Times for all accused with a Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 charge (regardless of what other charges they are accused of) are shown in Table 14 of the supplementary tables.

Figure 30: Median times for different justice stages for accused charged with domestic abuse split by non-historic (a) and historic (b) offences.

​​​​​​​6.6.6. Housebreaking.

[Supplementary Table 12]

Median offence to police known times for housebreaking are essentially 0. Median police known to COPFS report times for housebreaking was 16 days in 2023-24.

Median COPFS report to court registration times have increased in the last three reporting years, increasing by 22 days (23%) to 119 days in 2023-24.

Median court registration to verdict times decreased in 2023-24 by 89 days (-44%) to 114 days.

Figure 31: Median times for different justice process stages for accused charged with housebreaking.

​​​​​​​6.6.7. Shoplifting.

[Supplementary Table 12]

Median offence to police known times for shoplifting are essentially 0. Median police known to COPFS report times for this type of crime have more than doubled since 2019-20 and reached 55 days in 2023-24.

Median COPFS report to court registration times have been more or less stable during the seven financial years reported on and was 39 days in 2023-24.

Median court registration to verdict times increased in 2020-21 and 2021-22 and then started to decrease. In 2023-24 they decreased by 34 days (-28%) to 89 days.

 

Figure 32: Median times for different justice process stages for accused charged with shoplifting.

​​​​​​​6.6.8. Drugs – Supply.

[Supplementary Table 12]

Median offence to police known times for accused charged with drugs supply are essentially 0. Median police known to COPFS report times for this type of crime were around 10 days over the three years to 2019-20 but they have generally been increasing over the last four reporting years reaching a maximum median time of 25 days in 2022-23, which decreased to 23 days in 2023-24.

Median COPFS report to court registration times have been increasing during the seven years reported on, although they have stabilised in the last three years. In 2023-24 times decreased by 1 day to 184 days.

Median court registration to verdict times have been increasing since 2019-20, however, they decreased in 2023-24 by 65 days (-26%) to 184 days.

Figure 33: Median times for different justice process stages for accused charged with drugs supply.