Vulnerable Witnesses Act: three month evaluation report
Sets out the findings of a short term evaluation into the operation of the presumption in favour of pre-recorded evidence for children under the age of 18 giving evidence in the High Court to understand what lessons can be learned for future implementation of the Act.
Footnotes
1. A Scottish Government led group, whose membership included representatives from SG, SCTS, COPFS, the Judicial Institute for Scotland, the Faculty of Advocates, the Law Society of Scotland, SLAB, and Police Scotland.
2. See SCTS Evaluation Report No 2 (Dec 2018 – SCTS). The report indicates that for the 2017 calendar year a total of 50 applications were received for a witness to provide evidence on commission in High Court cases, 133 applications were made to the High Court in the first 10 months of the 2018 calendar year, and that this growth was largely seen as being attributable to the impetus gained through the issuing of the new Practice Note, Practice Note No 1 of 2017.
3. See SCTS monthly management information published.
4. See SCTS monthly management information published.
5. It is common for an application lodged seeking the use of a commission under the applicable provisions under the 1995 Act to also seek the use of other special measures e.g. supporter, use of a prior statement as all or part of examination in chief. For the purposes of this report the term application has been used for all applications seeking a commission.
6. It is possible that there may be instances where further evidence from the witness may be required for a variety of reasons. The method by which this is captured is a matter for the party citing the witness.
7. Where a category from the metrics produced is not referenced within the body of the text, it had ‘0’ results attributed to it.
8. See SCTS Evaluation Report No 2 (Dec 2018 – SCTS). The report indicates that for the 2017 calendar year a total of 50 applications were received for a witness to provide evidence on commission in High Court cases, with 29 witnesses having had their evidence recorded by commission in that calendar year.
9. For more details of which access the SCTS’s dedicated web page.
10. The High Court Practice Note 1 of 2017 and High Court Practice Note No 1 of 2019
11. See SCTS monthly management information published.
12. At page 11.
Contact
Email: prerecordedevidence@gov.scot
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