Scottish Budget: 2024 to 2025

Annex A.10 – Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service

Portfolio Responsibilities

The Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service is the sole public prosecution authority in Scotland, prosecuting cases independently, fairly and effectively in the public interest. It is also responsible for investigating sudden, unexplained and suspicious deaths and allegations of criminal conduct by police officers. This work helps to ensure that Scotland is safe from crime, disorder and danger.

The Lord Advocate has Ministerial responsibility for the work of the service. The Lord Advocate’s position as head of the systems of criminal prosecution and investigation of deaths is enshrined in the Scotland Act 1998 and she exercises that responsibility independently of any other person.

The funding for the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service in 2024-25 will support the continued recovery of the court system from the backlogs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the reduction of waiting times for justice.

The Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service is a demand-led organisation with responsibility to meet state obligations to deliver justice. It operates within a complex criminal justice system to deliver justice, with the volume and complexity of the service’s casework continuing to grow.

Along with justice partners, the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service has made a five-year commitment to address trial backlogs caused by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The backlog of cases in the justice system have already been reduced by around a third and these will continue to decrease through targeted use of the expanded court capacity programme. This includes a particular focus on more serious cases within the solemn courts while seeking to ensure that the volume of summary cases is regularised during 2024.

Sexual crime has increased and makes up just over 70 per cent of High Court cases and there continue to be high levels of domestic abuse cases. Violence against women and girls, sexual crime and domestic abuse will form the bulk of casework for some years to come. Victims and witnesses of crime are at the heart of the justice system, and the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service will ensure that justice responses are robust, supportive and trauma-informed.

The spending plans for the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service will ensure a just, safe and resilient Scotland where genuine equality and opportunity allows everyone to reach their potential and contribute fully to society.

Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service intended contributions to the National Outcomes

Primary National Outcomes

• Communities
• Human Rights

Secondary National Outcomes

• Economy
• Fair Work and Business
• Environment

For further information on the purpose of the portfolio budget, and contributions to national outcomes (including impacts of spend on equality of outcome) please refer to the relevant portfolio annex in the published Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement.

Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service