Victim Notification Scheme - Independent Review: SG response

Footnotes

1 The VNS provides victims of offenders sentenced to more than 18 months’ imprisonment with the right to certain information (such as when an offender is released), and with the right to make representations in some circumstances, when a decision is being made to release an offender (this is in the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003). This includes victims of patients in the forensic mental health system who have been given a sentence of imprisonment and are subject to a hospital direction or a transfer for treatment direction.

2 This applies to victims of patients in the forensic mental health system who are subject to a Compulsion Order and Restriction Order. The CORO VNS also provides victims with the right to certain information about a patient, and to make representations before certain decisions are made about a patient

3 This is the Victim Information Scheme (VIS) and provides a more limited scheme of information for victims

4 The Victims Taskforce was established in 2018 by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice (Humza Yousaf) to coordinate and drive action to improve the experiences of victims and witnesses within the criminal justice system, whilst ensuring a fair justice system for accused persons. It is currently co-chaired by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs and the Lord Advocate.

5 The review’s report contains a list of the stakeholders interviewed at Appendix C.

6 Section 12 of the review’s report explains the “Single Point of Contact”: “… the Thomson Report [Review of victim care in the justice sector in Scotland | COPFS] of 2017 … identified there was no unified approach to delivering an information or support service to victims and witnesses, rather the victim experience was delivered through multiple interactions leading to complexity, duplication, gaps and re-traumatisation. The vision is that there should be 'one front door'.”

7 “Secure care” is the language used by the review in the recommendation. This is also known as “secure accommodation”.

8 Section 29 of the report to the review provides an indication of potential caseload for automatic referral to the Victim Contact Team

9 Foxgrove (National Secure Adolescent Inpatient Service for Scotland) - NHS Ayrshire and Arran (nhsaaa.net)

10 E.g. where a person is removed from the UK for the purposes of being tried for offences overseas. We are aware that, if an offender is convicted of an offence committed in Scotland, as a general rule they will serve their custodial sentence here before being extradited.

11 A Hospital Direction can be imposed by a court in addition to imposing a custodial sentence. This allows an offender to initially be detained in hospital for medical treatment.

12 A Transfer for Treatment Direction allows for a person who is serving a sentence of imprisonment or detention to be transferred to hospital for mental health treatment.

13 The same list is used for eligibility for a person to make a victim statement.

14 The report to the review referred to sections 16 and 16B of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003, which relate to a victim’s right to receive information concerning the release of an offender. This was updated by the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Act 2023, which enables a victim to nominate a victim support organisation to receive information on their behalf. Recommendation 12 looks similar to this, but there are differences between the two, which we will need to work through.

15 Referred to in section 20 of the review as “reaches the earliest date of liberation.”

16 The CORO VNS applies only where an offender is subject to a CORO, not other forms of order relating to the forensic mental health system.

17 Gov.scot is the Scottish Government’s official website. It provides information about the work of Government. Mygov.scot provides access to public services in Scotland, and information about those services.