Victim Notification Scheme - Independent Review: SG response

Introduction

This is the Scottish Government’s response to the Independent Review of the Victim Notification Scheme. It sets out our response to review recommendations and how they are being or will be taken forward.

In March 2022, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans invited Alastair MacDonald and Fiona Young to conduct a review into the Victim Notification Scheme (VNS). The Scottish Government had heard concerns from victims and victim support organisations about the operation of the scheme and wanted to undertake a review to ensure that the scheme was fit for purpose and served victims effectively.

The review of the VNS began in April 2022. Its report, supplement to the report, and an easy read version of the report were published in May 2023.

These documents can be found at the following links:

• Victim Notification Scheme (VNS): independent review (www.gov.scot)
• Supplement to the Report on the Independent Review of the Victim Notification Scheme: International Models (www.gov.scot)
• Victim Notification Scheme (VNS): independent review - easy read (www.gov.scot)

The review made recommendations in relation to all three notification schemes:

• the VNS for victims of offenders sentenced to more than 18 months^[1]
• the CORO VNS^[2], and
• the scheme of information for victims of offenders sentenced to fewer than 18 months’ imprisonment^[3].

In this document, the term VNS refers to all three schemes, unless otherwise specified.

The review made 22 main recommendations some of which are made up of multiple parts. The recommendations cover a wide range of issues: from the need to set clear objectives and targets, to how to streamline processes, to referral, and the need for a personal communications. The recommendations broadly fall under the following five themes:

• process and system improvements
• data, evidence and reporting
• enhanced information
• eligibility to receive information
• communications

Our vision is for trauma-informed approaches to justice which victims can trust. We have discussed the review’s recommendations with a range of stakeholders since the report was published to inform our response and identified three key aims for VNS reform from those conversations:

• Aim 1: the VNS meets victims’ needs by upholding and enhancing their rights to information under the Victims Code for Scotland
• Aim 2: the VNS is delivered in a person-centred way that minimises the risk of re-traumatisation
• Aim 3: the VNS is operationally effective, ensuring victim confidence and trust

The Scottish Government’s Vision for Justice in Scotland sets out transformation priorities for the justice sector, with a key focus on services, third sector partners and the legal profession being trauma-informed. The following Vision aim is particularly relevant to VNS reform and has been at the heart of developing our response to the review:

“We have effective, modern person-centred and trauma-informed approaches to justice in which everyone can have trust, including as victims, those accused of crimes and as individuals in civil disputes.”