Victims Taskforce papers: June 2024

Scottish Government update (paper 9) 

Purpose 

1. This paper provides an update to the Victims Taskforce on legislative and non-legislative work to improve how people affected by crime experience the justice system. 

Background  

2. Since the last update to the Taskforce, a number of significant milestones have been met in the ongoing strategic programme of work to deliver the Vision for Justice in Scotland - which sets out the Government’s vision for a just, safe and resilient Scotland. The coming months will see more important developments, both in the Parliament and through the implementation of a variety of legislative and non-legislative measures. Essential to this work will be building on the strong partnerships we have developed with our delivery partners in the justice agencies, public sector and third sector – many of whom are represented on the Taskforce. 

3. Many of the areas of work covered in this paper either contribute directly to, or are linked to, the two Victims Taskforce workstreams of a Victim Centred Approach and Trauma Informed Workforce. Furthermore, members of the Victims Taskforce have been instrumental in the development of many of these measures - and in ensuring the voices of people affected by crime are heard and inform how the measures are developed and implemented. 

Updates 

Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill  

4. The Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 25 April 2023. The Bill responds to concerns about the need to improve the experiences of victims and witnesses within Scotland’s justice system, especially the victims of sexual crime. It also continues to safeguard the operation and principles of the system and protect the rights of those accused of crime.   

5. The Bill passed Stage 1 on 23 April 2024. Timescales for stages 2 and 3 are determined by the Scottish Parliament but our assumption is that Stage 2 (the main amending stage) will be after summer recess.    

6. The Criminal Justice Committee’s report at Stage 1 was published on 29 March, The Scottish Government’s response was published on 16 April 2024.   

7. Further information about the Bill content is available on the Scottish Government website. The Bill and its accompanying documents (policy memorandum, financial memorandum and explanatory notes) are available on the Scottish Parliament website. 

Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Act 

8. The Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Act (the Act) was passed on 22 June 2023 and became an Act on 1 August 2023. The aim of the Act is to ensure the use of custody for remand is focused on public safety including victim safety and delivery of justice, and that greater focus is given to the rehabilitation and reintegration of individuals leaving prison custody. 

9. The Act focuses on two parts of the criminal justice system – bail and remand decisions (Part 1) and release from prison custody (Part 2). The provisions in the Act are underpinned by a commitment to public protection and victim safety and aim to reduce reoffending, crime and future victimisation.  

10. The reforms through Part 1 of the Act are intended to ensure that, as much as possible, the use of custody for remand is restricted to where it is necessary in the interests of public safety (including victim safety) and (in limited situations) to prevent a significant risk of prejudice to the interests of justice. The reforms through Part 2 are intended to give a greater focus to the rehabilitation and reintegration of individuals leaving custody with the aim of reducing the risk of reoffending. It does that by, for example, placing a new duty on named public bodies to engage in the pre-release planning of people in prison, as well as requiring the publication of statutory minimum throughcare standards.

11. Planning for the implementation of the Act is underway, with commencement of certain elements expected to take place in the first half of 2024. It is important to note that different sections of the Act will be commenced at different times, with the timeline being influenced by multiple factors, including engagement with stakeholders around resource and readiness, which remains ongoing. 

12. For the bail reforms in Part 1 of the Act, section 5, which enables time spent by an accused person on electronically monitored bail awaiting trial or sentence to be accounted for against any eventual custodial sentence, will be brought into force on 1 July 2024. Implementation of the remainder of the bail reforms, including the new bail test, is expected to follow over the coming months. 

13. For the release provisions in Part 2 of the Act, Section 11 introduces powers which enable Scottish Ministers to release prisoners early, where it is necessary and proportionate to do so to respond to the effects an emergency situation is having or is likely to have on a prison. Section 11 came into force on 26 May 2024.  

14. Given the sharp and sudden rise in the prison population over the last 8 weeks, the Scottish Government considers is it necessary and proportionate to use the emergency release powers to protect the security and good order of prisons and the health, safety and welfare of prisoners and prison staff.  

15. The Scottish Government have laid draft regulations and are seeking Parliament’s approval to use this power, for a limited period of time. The draft regulations will apply to prisoners serving less than four years who are due to be released within 180 days from the date of the regulations coming into force, if parliament agrees to the use of this power.

16. Certain statutory exclusions are set out in the primary legislation, including in relation to individuals serving sentences under domestic abuse legislation and those subject to sex offender notification requirements. 

17. The draft regulations also include additional exclusions, including those who have served a sentence of imprisonment or detention for an offence aggravated for reasons of domestic abuse under the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016 or who, have served a sentence of imprisonment or detention for an offence under section 1(1) of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, (domestic abuse), (in both instances where the conviction for the offence is not spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974), and those who are the subject of a non-harassment order. 

18. A prison Governor will veto the release of an otherwise eligible individual where they consider that the individual presents an immediate risk of harm to an identified individual or group, if they were to be released early using this power.

19. We continue to work with key stakeholders on the use of this power and are exploring the optimal way to manage the associated emergency release process, should parliament agree to the regulations and the use of this power.

For the release provisions in Part 2 of the Act, section 14 (which includes amendments to the Victim Notification Scheme (VNS) so that victims can nominate a victim support organisation (VSO) to receive information at the same time as the victim, or on their behalf) has been commenced and came into force on 26 May 2024. The draft regulations which specify the cohort of offenders to be released under the section 11 power also prescribe four VSOs for the purposes of section 14: ASSIST, Children 1st, Rape Crisis Scotland and Victim Support Scotland.  We intend to conduct a wider consultation on the prescribed bodies to a longer timescale in the future.  

Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill 

20. The Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill was introduced to Parliament on 13 December 2022. As outlined in the Programme for Government 2022/23: “The Children’s Care and Justice Bill will help us Keep The Promise by ensuring that children who come into contact with care and justice services are treated with trauma-informed and age-appropriate support and will put an end to placing under 18s in Young Offenders’ Institutions. The Bill aims to improve experiences and outcomes for children in Scotland who interact with the children’s hearing and criminal justice systems, as well as care settings and those who are placed across borders in exceptional circumstances”. 

21. The Bill aligns with the wider approach being taken around incorporating the UNCRC and includes measures to help Scotland Keep the Promise. Key topics include: 

• Raising the maximum age of referral to the Principal Reporter to 18 

• Information to victims re. children’s hearings interventions for children responsible for harm/offending 

• Protection for people who have been harmed and preventative measures in the hearings system 

• Remittal between hearings and the courts  

• Enhanced framework for court adaptations for children 

• Ending statutory routes to placement of children in Young Offenders’ Institutions 

• Routes to secure care and accommodation post-18 

• Provisions of new powers re cross border care placements 

22. The Bill completed Stage 1 of the Scottish Parliament ahead of summer recess. Ahead of this, the Education, Children and Young People Committee published its Stage 1 report on Parliament’s website and the Scottish Government published its response. 

23. The Bill completed Stage 2 on 7 February 2024, following scrutiny of 220+ amendments by the Education, Children and Young People Committee. Supplementary Financial and Delegated Powers Memoranda were published following this. The Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise engaged across political parties on a range of issues to promote consensus, ahead of Stage 3.  

24. The Bill was agreed at Stage 3 by the Scottish Parliament on 25 April 2024 following two sessions over the course of two days, and is awaiting Royal Assent.  

25. The provisions made in the Bill for victims received significant scrutiny. We are committed to a person-centred, trauma-informed approach and share the Committee’s and witnesses’ clear desire to ensure a consistent quality approach to information and support from the early stages of a victim being identified. This is why there are to be reinforced information-sharing and support measures for victims within the children’s hearings system once provisions are commenced. This will extend the powers for the Principal Reporter to share information with someone harmed by a child’s behaviour, particularly to assist safety planning. 

26. Children’s hearings are not criminal justice settings, yet the rights of the victim must be carefully balanced against the rights of the referred child. Child-specific information will always be restricted, and care must be taken to ensure the Kilbrandon ethos of the children’s hearings system (which has the needs and welfare of the child who is at the centre of the referral), is not compromised. That is why the single point of contact service for victims and their families, agreed by Parliament as part of the Bill and developed following engagement with Victim Support Scotland, will be important. This new single point of contact will be established to provide support to victims to understand the system and their rights, be a conduit of information and to help coordinate access to support.

27. As with implementation of any legislation enacted by the Parliament, the Scottish Ministers will not lay commencement regulations unless they are satisfied, following ongoing consultation and engagement with Children’s Hearings Scotland and SCRA that the time, and system readiness conditions, are right to introduce these reforms.

28. An Implementation and Resourcing group, comprising of delivery agencies and a wide range of stakeholders, continues to meet, and has been undertaking preparatory work in anticipation of this legislation.

Bairns’ Hoose

29. An update on Bairns’ Hoose is provided in Paper 5, detailing improvements to services and support for child victims and witnesses.

The Learning Disabiity, Autism and Nerodivergence Bill (LDAN Bill) (draft title)

30. A consultation exercise on proposals for the LDAN Bill closed on 21 April with close to 900 responses.  We are currently analysing responses and developing policy proposals for this bill. 

31. The scope of the Bill is still to be finally determined but at its widest would include people with learning disabilities and all other neurodivergent people eg autistic people, people with ADHD, FASD and learning difficulties.

32. The Bill contains a core package of proposals covering:

• Mandatory training for some public bodies on neurodivergence

• Mandatory national and local strategies

• Improvements to inclusive communications

• Improvements to data

• Improvements to advocacy support

33. There are 3 specific proposals that cover the justice system – these would apply to adults with further discussion required on CYP and cover both offenders and witnesses, civil and criminal justice: 

• Better identification of neurodivergence within the justice system 

• Improved communications

• Mandatory training

34. We are currently discussing and developing the proposals with the justice agencies. Decisions on the remainder of the legislative programme will be made by Cabinet.

Independent review of the Victim Notification Scheme

35. The independent review of the Victim Notification Scheme (VNS) was commissioned in late March 2022. The review’s report, supplement to the report, and easy read version of the report were published on the Scottish Government’s website on 12 May. The report contained 22 recommendations covering:

• Automatic referral and a new victim contact team 

• Data, evidence and reporting 

• Streamlined process 

• Enhanced information for victims  

• Eligibility

36. The Victim Notification Scheme enables eligible victims to obtain information about an offender’s or patient’s release, and/or to make representations as part of decisions on release.

37. The Scottish Government echoes the review’s thanks to everyone who contributed to the report, victims and survivors in particular. We are also grateful to everyone who has discussed the review’s recommendations with officials since the report was published.

38. We have used those discussions to inform our response to the review’s report, which we expect to set out our vision for reform of the VNS, our position on each recommendation, and how reform of the VNS links to wider justice transformation work. We expect to publish our response very soon.

Violence Prevention Framework 

39. At the last meeting, we provided background to the publication in May 2023 of the Violence Prevention Framework for Scotland. This is aimed at preventing violence from happening in the first instance but as and when it does occur, to reduce its harm. The Framework has drawn on the evidence and research available on violence and what works to prevent violence, and includes some priority actions, supported annually with over £2m investment, which are being taken forward in partnership with our SG grant funded stakeholder organisations, including the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit and Medics Against Violence.  

40. The Framework should not be viewed in isolation, and sits alongside our existing commitments to address specific forms of violence, for example to eradicate men’s violence against women and girls and tackling hate crime. Our commitment to tackle these forms of violence are set out in the strategies on Hate Crime and Equally Safe and its refresh. 

41. The key priority actions within the Framework include; 

• preventing young people engaging in violence;  

• helping older offenders with a history of knife-carrying via targeted activity; and 

  • extending the hospital-based ‘Navigator’ approach which helps support people with multiple complex issues to access services, and stop the revolving door of harm. 
  • repeat violent victimisation (informed by a research study which explored peoples’ experiences of repeat, interpersonal violence (content warning). The report included an Executive Summary plus three topical research briefings).

42. We are working to develop and publish a Violence Prevention Framework SG annual update report on the progress being made so far to deliver the actions. This will be published by the end of September 2024.

Consultation on Permanency of certain criminal justice measures from the Coronavirus Recovery and Reform (Scotland) Act 2022 etc 

43. On 6 November 2023 we launched a consultation paper seeking views on making permanent, through legislation in this Parliamentary term, the following temporary criminal justice measures which were put in place in the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022. 

a) Allowing for the electronic signing and sending of documents in criminal cases: provisions enabling the use of digital transmission of documents to allow court services to operate more efficiently. 

b) Enabling virtual attendance at a criminal court: provisions allowing people to attend a criminal court by electronic means (for example, by live video link) to support the transformation to a more trauma-informed and person-centred justice system. 

c) A national jurisdiction for callings from custody, so that custody cases can be heard in any court in Scotland: enables all sheriffs to hear custody cases no matter where the accused is being held, no matter where the sheriff normally has jurisdiction, and no matter where the alleged offence took place allowing the increased use of virtual custody courts. 

d) An increase in the maximum level of fiscal fine, to £500, along with adjustments to the scale of fines: enables alternative action to prosecution to continue to be taken in a wider range of summary cases. 

44. Additional proposals included as part of this consultation are to allow images of physical evidence to be admissible in evidence in the same way as if the item had been produced int court and modernisation of the law around the proof of copy documents.  

45. These measures will enable flexibility, appropriate choice and a person-centred approach in the way processes are managed for those who use the system, including victims, witnesses and the accused and maximise the use of technology where appropriate in our procedures and practices.  

46. The Consultation closed on 12 February 2024. We are currently analysing the responses to the consultation and a report will be published this summer.  

Hate Crime Strategy and Delivery Plan  

47. Scotland’s Hate Crime Strategy was published in March 2023. It was developed with the Hate Crime Strategic Partnership Group as well as the voices of those with lived experience of hate crime, and sets out several aims and commitments owned by the Scottish Government and key delivery partners.

48. The strategy provides three overarching aims: 

• Victims of hate crime are treated with fairness, compassion and in a trauma-informed manner in which their safety and recovery is a priority
• The nature, characteristics, and extent of hate crime in Scotland are more fully understood and effectively inform appropriate interventions and policy development
• Communities are empowered, inclusive and safe, and the underlying causes of hate crime are challenged

49. This was followed by publication of the strategy’s associated delivery plan in November 2023, which sets out activity until April 2026. Delivery activity is already underway and includes actions to tackle barriers to reporting, review third-party reporting services and work with COSLA to understand what local authorities would find helpful in terms of a toolkit to address hate crime and strengthen community cohesion.

50. The delivery plan also supported implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, which was commenced on 1 April 2024. The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 (“The Act”) - passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2021 and implemented on 1 April 2024 - will provide greater protections for those who are targeted by hate crime.

51. The Act: 

• maintains and consolidates current protections in law against offences aggravated by prejudice against disability, race, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity  - these are the same characteristics across the UK for hate crime - and adds age as a new characteristic 

• introduces new offences of ‘stirring up hatred’ which criminalises threatening or abusive behaviour and the communication of threatening or abusive material which is intended to stir up hatred against a group of people by reason of their possessing, or appearing to possess the above particular characteristics 

• splits the previous definition of transgender identity which included the term ‘intersexuality’ to separate groups – transgender and  variations in sex characteristics are therefore now separate characteristic 

See: Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021: information note 

Justice Transformational Change programmes 

Criminal Justice Efficiency Programme 

52. Since the last meeting of the Victims Taskforce, this Transformational change programme has continued to make progress against its milestones while continuing to develop its governance framework and scope based on the experience of the programme to date.  

53. The Programme aims to:  

• Reduce delays in the time cases take to progress through the justice system from start to finish.  

• Improve the experience of the people involved while the case is underway 

• Improve access to information to support appropriate, early decision-making and reduce uncertainty in how processes will work 

• Increase the use of digital to deliver better, user-centred and more efficient services, using flexible, reuseable, and scalable technology.  

54. The current projects within the programme are: 

1. System Health Check (SG) 

2. Summary Case Management Pilot (SCTS) 

3. Remote provision of Evidence (SCTS) 

4. Trauma Informed National Domestic Abuse Court Model (SCTS) 

5. Digital Evidence Sharing Capability (DESC) Police Scotland 

6. National Victim and Witness Gateway (SG/COPFS) 

7. Reduce Journey Times inc. Court Recovery Programme and COPFS Case Marking (SG/SCTS/COPFS) 

8. Body Worn Video (PS) 

55. Key areas of progress are: 

• Summary Case Management Pilot has expanded to Glasgow. The pilot is demonstrating positive outcomes and plans are being developed for wider roll out. 

• DESC has successfully completed pilot, has expanded to all of D Division and is planning to commence national roll out soon. 

• The COPFS Witness Gateway 

56. Discussions at the board has focussed on understanding dependencies, the co-location of pilots and planning for national rollouts.  

Person-Centred Trauma-Informed Programme 

57. The programme has been established to bring together a number of areas of policy development and implementation, to drive forward our commitment to ensure that we have effective, modern person-centred and trauma-informed approaches to justice in which everyone can have trust.  The projects aim to drive and implement significant reform across the justice sector, and therefore require a whole-system approach. 

58. The Victims Taskforce drive forward two of the projects shared with this Programme, for which separate update papers have been provided. These are: 

• Workstream 2 - Implementing the Trauma Informed Justice knowledge and skills framework 

• Workstream 3 - Embedding the "People at Heart" approach to Communication 

59. Updates on the remaining projects are as follows: 

• Expand the use of pre-recorded evidence to further groups of child and vulnerable witnesses: 

  • We published an evaluation of the effectiveness of the Vulnerable Witnesses Act at supporting witnesses in December 2023. This covered the first three years of the Act coming into force, and showed that it has resulted in a large increase in the number of witnesses pre-recording their evidence ahead of trial. 

  • The next phase of the rollout will extend the presumption in favour of pre-recorded evidence to child witnesses and victims aged under 16 in the sheriff court by April 2026 in accordance with our revised implementation plan published in April, although we will continue to explore opportunities to speed up roll out of the presumption. 

  • This has been supported by an additional £2m in capital funding to SCTS to build dedicated facilities which provide, trauma-informed spaces for the purposes of recording the evidence of vulnerable witnesses and which will ensure there is sufficient capacity in every sheriffdom. 

• Establish Restorative Justice services across Scotland: 

  • We are committed to establishing Restorative Justice services available across Scotland, with the needs of persons harmed and their voices central to the process. 
  • Work to date on the Action Plan has revealed significant complexities which, coupled with the impact of the pandemic, have held up delivery. 
  • In 2024-25 we are providing total funding of over £437,000 to Community Justice Scotland and the Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice to develop the national service. 

• Expand the scope of the Victim Statements scheme:

  • As a Ministerial commitment, we consulted at the end of 2019 and passed regulations in 2021, to provide greater flexibility in how powers relating to victim statements can be used. 
  • This project is currently delayed due to resource and funding issues, as well as a potential dependency on a COPFS IT project. 

Conclusion 

60. Members of the Victims Taskforce are invited to note the updates provided in this paper.